Release Dates for Viridian, Carmine, Virtualization and Longhorn

Microsoft is ambiguous to say the least when it comes to the release dates for the milestones in the development of Viridian, Carmine, Virtualization and Longhorn and Service Pack 1 for Virtual Server 2005 R2. And the Redmond Company's position has generated speculations that are pointing to 2008 and even 2009 as the timeframe for the products mentioned above. But is there any trust to this?

Carmine is the affectionate codename for System Center Virtual Machine Manager, or SCVMM. At the Microsoft Management Summit, the Redmond Company announced Carmine Beta 2. Carmine is designed to deliver management tools for Virtual Server and the second beta will be delivered within 45 days. By mid May, you should be able to access Carmine Beta 2.

Windows Server Virtualization, codename Viridian has an official release date announced. Only that it too is ambiguous. According to Microsoft, Viridian will be delivered no later than 180 days following the release of Longhorn. The Redmond Company is also getting ready to release another beta build for Viridian. Sometime after May 28, 2007 users should be able to get their hands on Viridian, and by that time they already should have Longhorn Beta 3.

With Longhorn, the story of the release date is already old news. Microsoft will ship the final product in the second half of 2007, and will deliver a CTP build in the upcoming months, and the beta 3 milestone within 90 days. By the end of May, Longhorn Beta 3 should have already dropped.

Service Pack 1 for Virtual Server 2005 R2 is only planned for release "soon". The service pack is currently in beta and the expiration date on it is May 31, so by that time Microsoft will most likely offer the final SP.