Microsoft Corp has rescheduled the launch of the second beta version of its server operating system Windows NT 5.0, in a move that industry pundits say will push back the operating system’s final release until the fourth quarter 1999; a quarter later than expected. Given that Redmond is supposed to calve a 64-bit version of NT from NT 5, that must push a release for Merced back into the timeframe Intel Corp has rescheduled for its IA-64 offering: 2000. Mike Nash, director of marketing for NT Server said the company had announced in November 1997 that it would release a second of NT 5.0 beta in the first half of 1998. However, in May of this year Microsoft realized the launch would be delayed because the beta did not contain everything destined for NT 5. As a result, he said the company had decided to revise its schedule and put back the release until some time during the late summer. An interim beta version, between release two and three, has now been scrapped, he said. Instead, Microsoft will offer an NT 5.0 beta version 3, although he gave no timeframe for its release. Nash denied that delays to beta versions of the software would have any knock-on effect on the release of the final version of NT 5, saying the company had never given a release date for the software. He stressed that quality was much more important to Microsoft that sticking to set timeframes. But industry analysts and OEM partners agree that the delays will serve to further put back the final launch of NT 5.0. One analyst, Deutsche Bank’s Michael Kwatinez, said yesterday that the software wouldn’t appear until the fourth quarter 1999, which he estimated to be a quarter later than originally expected.
