MS to delay NT 5.0, release a public beta!

According to reports, Microsoft will let the Windows NT 5.0 release dateslip yet again as long as it means the upcoming operating system--which Bill Gates says Microsoft "is betting the company on"--is ready to competewith on even ground with UNIX. To meet this goal, NT will have to bestable, secure, scalable, and ready for multiple simultaneous users, justlike UNIX.

Microsoft says it will release a second beta "refresh" (the first came inMarch) this week to the 3000 attendees at the Windows NT 5.0 DeploymentConference in San Jose, California. Beta 2 of NT 5.0, which will includefully working IntelliMirror and Active Directory features, will slip fromJuly to a late Summer release. Even more telling, Beta 2 will not be feature-complete, as previously planned.

Given this, Microsoft is now planning a third beta release which will include Terminal Server 2.0, for multi-user support. NT 5.0 Beta 3 is duelater this year; how much later depends on the feedback they get from Beta2. Best of all, though: Beta 3 will be available to the general public, soanyone who wants to check it out will be able to get it. Mike Nash, group product manager for Windows NT Server, says that Beta 3 will also includeInternet Explorer 5.0.

Microsoft has been uncharacteristically realistic about the NT releaseschedule, generally only giving vague time periods, rather than exact datesfor various beta releases.

"We can give probabilities," said Microsoft CEO Bill Gates last week aboutWindows NT 5.0. "There's almost no possibility it will be [released] in 1998. There's a high probability it will be in the first half of 1999. That's different than a ship date.