Microsoft Windows XP "Reloaded"
By: Arie Slob• March 5, 2004 •
What's that, you'd say? Well, despite previous denials by Microsoft, it seems that Microsoft has reversed their plans and will offer an "interim" release of Windows XP!
Previously Microsoft always denied it was considering such a release. Will Pool, Senior Vice President, Microsoft Windows Platforms Group, at the Windows Hardware Engineering Conference (WinHec) 2003 conference stated: "Now, I'm sure that many of you have heard about or wonder about the possibility of whether we're going to do something before "Longhorn," is there an interim release, and that's something that I don't expect us to do."
But it now seems that Microsoft is close to making the decision to release an interim Windows XP version, which is being referred to internally as "Windows XP Reloaded." This release would come after the release of Service Pack 2, which is currently estimated to be released before mid-year. This would put a possible release of "Reloaded" at the end of this year, or the beginning of 2005.
It does seem that things are still in the planning stage, so concrete details are hard to find. It does sound like "Reloaded" will not make major changes to Windows XP itself, but rather be like a "Plus" pack, with additional functionality. Some reports mention a version 10 for Windows Media Player as one example of "updated" functionality.
Early reports also indicates that "Reloaded" might be made available using a Web based installer, which will let users choose which features they want. The product will also be made available through retail, replacing existing Windows XP boxed products.
Longhorn, the next version of Windows, in the meantime, seems to be slipping (what's new?). At the WinHec conference speech linked above, you can read that Will Pool stated: "Over the course of 2004 you'll see a couple of releases in the betas for "Longhorn" and we'll see that coming to market in 2005." Later Microsoft said that a ship date of 2005 wasn't a set date, and would only go as far as to state that Longhorn would ship "when ready". It had been anticipated that after last year's release of an early beta version at the Professional Development Conference (PDC), a first public beta of Longhorn would be made available near the end of 2004, with a release of the final product somewhere in 2005. It now seems more likely that the final product won't ship before 2006, and maybe even as late as 2007!
I will be attending a 3 day MVP summit at Microsoft in early April, and although some things discussed will be under a "Non Disclosure Agreement", I still expect to be able to give some more details on the "roadmap" Microsoft will lay out for Windows XP and Longhorn.
For consumers, a clear roadmap is not that important, but the enterprise market needs a clear roadmap, and right now it's pretty vague.
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