Ballmer says

May 22, 2006 13:13 GMT  ·  By

Although there have been voices claiming that the lawsuit with Symantec will force Microsoft to delay Vista yet again, the Redmond company continues to state that the OS will be released as planned.

"I wouldn't anticipate any, but that will go to the courts now," Microsoft's CEO, Steve Ballmer, told Reuters.

The reason why Symantec, one of the most important security software producers, has sued Microsoft is the breaching of contract and the misappropriation of its intellectual property.

It's not the first time when the issue of a new delay for Vista is brought into question, a few weeks ago, Gartner's analysts forecasting that Windows Vista will be available somewhere in the second quarter of 2007, this being due to the necessary time after the Beta 2 is released.

Microsoft didn't agree with the forecast and said that Vista will be released in January, as planned.

"We respectfully disagree with Gartner's views around timing of the final delivery of Windows Vista. We remain on track to deliver Windows Vista Beta 2 in the second quarter and to deliver the final product to volume license customers in November 2006 and to other businesses and consumers in January 2007," the Redmond company said in an e-mail sent to BetaNews.