The Longhorn server – an off-again, on-again proposition – will ship a year after the Longhorn client’s panned delivery, now expected in the first-half of 2006 instead of 2005. The first Longhorn beta is due in the first half of 2005 with a second beta in 2006.

Windows Server senior vice president Bob Muglia is reported to have said Longhorn server would feature improved manageability and support for dynamic partitioning and other features to build Windows mainframes.

Muglia said Microsoft is moving to a system of major sever releases every four years, with updates every two years. An updated Longhorn is due in 2009 and a service pack in 2008. There is no word on Blackcomb, the server operating system due after Longhorn that senior vice president Brian Valentine promised in 2007 or 2008.

Microsoft appears to be putting the word out on its server plans inorder to re-introduce a sense of stability to its roadmaps and product vision. Microsoft’s roadmap, renowned for delivery slippages at the best of times, this year saw across-the-board delays to the Longhorn client, SQL Server 2005 database and Visual Studio 2005 integrated development environment (IDE).

Delay to Longhorn is especially troubling for Microsoft, as it risks pushing out a string of related products, such as the Longhorn-edition of Office.

Despite Muglia’s commitment to Longhorn Server in 2007 with updates in 2008 and 2009, Microsoft’s ability to hit these dates will – as ever – remain in question, as delays inevitably creep in, the closer Microsoft comes to working on the operating systems.

Closer to home, an updated Windows Server product, codenamed R2, will add features to the currrent server operting system including identity management, previously codenamed Trustbridge, the ability to quarantine machines and SharePoint Services collaboration software. A second Widows Server 2003 is Service Pack (SP) is expected in 2006.

Muglia expects many customers who remained on eight-year-old Windows NT 4.0 to move to Windows Server 2003 this year, leaving 20% on Windows NT 4.0 by the end of 2004.