In the wild and wacky world of Microsoft's ever-delayed Longhorn project (the next major version of Windows), time seems to have no meaning. First revealed way back in 2001, Longhorn was supposed to ship in 2003, then 2004, then 2005, and now late 2006, and if you think 2007 is looking likely, you're not alone. But before you can ship a product, you have to test it, and Microsoft is finally getting ready to do just that. Despite having shipped a smattering of so-called "pre-alpha" Longhorn builds over the years, Microsoft is now gearing up to ship Longhorn Beta 1, a major milestone and an indication that the project is finally on track. Longhorn Beta 1 will probably ship by the end of July, followed by a Beta 2 release in late 2005 or early 2006, several release candidate builds, and then ... gasp ... the final shipping version. By that time, Windows XP will be over 5 years old, or about 91 in OS years. Weird
