While I am unable to locate the document that details this, I recall a Microsoft presentation I attended outlined the following plan for operating system releases:
* A major release every four years (XP, Vista) * An initial service pack (fixes only) the following year after a major release (SP1) * An R2 release (feature pack and fixes) every two years after a major release (XP SP2, Server 2003 R2). These releases may or may not be charged
While roadmaps are necessarily dynamic to accommodate the changing landscape, this roadmap does seem to make sense from a development point-of-view. To expect a major new release only two years after Vista I would expect to be too optimistic. To expect an R2 release to re-introduce the features that didn't make the cut so that Vista could actually make it out the door before 2010 sounds reasonable and would be what I would expect.
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David @ Feb 15th 2007 10:23AM
While I am unable to locate the document that details this, I recall a Microsoft presentation I attended outlined the following plan for operating system releases:
* A major release every four years (XP, Vista)
* An initial service pack (fixes only) the following year after a major release (SP1)
* An R2 release (feature pack and fixes) every two years after a major release (XP SP2, Server 2003 R2). These releases may or may not be charged
While roadmaps are necessarily dynamic to accommodate the changing landscape, this roadmap does seem to make sense from a development point-of-view. To expect a major new release only two years after Vista I would expect to be too optimistic. To expect an R2 release to re-introduce the features that didn't make the cut so that Vista could actually make it out the door before 2010 sounds reasonable and would be what I would expect.