Windows 2000 release date confirmed

Thanks to William Ricci for the tip: According to a report on IDG.NET, whichhas obtained an internal Microsoft email, the release date for Windows 2000has been set to October 6, 1999. This verifies information I've receivedfrom two other sources, which pegged October as the time for the finalrelease. It also contradicts the public statements that Microsoft makesabout the release, which it says will occur when its customers tell themWindows 2000 is ready. The reality here, of course, is that all upcomingMicrosoft products are on a development timeline. While some changes havebeen made in the past to the release schedule of important products such asWindows, many products (Visual Studio 6.0, Internet Explorer 4.0, etc.) aresimply declared "finished" when their time comes. And more often then not, aslew of updates and bug fixes follows in their wake. Microsoft, mindful ofthe fact that Windows 2000 needs to be as reliable as possible, has delayedthe product a few times in the past year: It was originally schedule to shipin late 1998..

Major upheavals at Microsoft, however, have gotten Windows 2000 on trackwith a realistic release schedule. The changes began in December with theremoval of Moshe Dunie and the subsequent rise of Brian Valentine as theperson directly responsible for Windows 2000. Since then, a clear-cutschedule has been established and the first milestone--Windows 2000 Beta 3Release Candidate 1 (RC1)--was released right on schedule last week. Thenext milestone--Beta 3--is due April 21st.

"Our credibility is on the line here," Valentine told the Windows 2000 teamin January, referring to the March 17th release for Beta 3 RC1. "We have todeliver." Well, they made the first milestone. Time will tell if Microsoftcan keep to the rest of its latest schedule while making Windows 2000 asreliable and worthwhile as possible