Though Windows NT 5.0 has been delayed several times and Microsoft is finding itself defending its bloated feature set, the company is already hard at work on the next version of NT, Windows NT 5.1. This upcoming release, which is code-named "Asteroid", seems to be designed specifically to address the features that don't make it into 5.0. Microsoft may use the Asteroid release as an excuse to drop features from NT 5.0 because they can argue that those features will be added to the OS well before the 6.0 release that's due sometime in 2001-2002.
It looks like Hollywood isn't the only place that's excited about Asteroids this year: Microsoft has got one up its sleeve and it may save the NT 5.0 release date from slipping any further than it already has. The release of Windows NT 5.1 is expected within a year of 5.0, now due in early 1999