Longhorn is Windows Server 2008

Majnu Babu

BANGALORE: Microsoft chairman Bill Gates has said the next version of Windows server will be called Windows Server 2008.

"I know it's a surprise for us to pick something so straightforward but it makes the most sense," Gates said at the Windows Hardware Engineering Conference at Los Angeles.

Windows Server 2008, formerly code-named Longhorn, is currently in its third and final beta stage, which was opened to public for testing for the first time in April. It has, according to Microsoft, till now has registered 100,000 downloads from its site.

Windows Server 2008 will have more than 4000 policy options for administrators to enforce. This is twice as many as Windows Server 2003.

The release of the final version of Windows Server 2007 was postponed many times in typical Microsoft fashion. Redmond-based software giant maintained that it would now release the server during the second half of this year.

Earlier this month, Margaret Arakawa, senior director of Security and Access Product Management at Microsoft, said that she believed Windows Server 2008 would be released in 2008.

"They are on the task to release the final version of Longhorn, I believe, in the first half of next year," she told CyberMedia News on the sidelines of the launch of Microsoft Forefront Client Security and System Center Essentials 2007 in Los Angeles.

Incidentally, the name Windows Server 2008 was leaked last week, when Microsoft used the name in its Windows Hardware Engineering Conference 2007 press site. Microsoft, however, refused to confirm the moniker and said it did not wish to comment on rumours.

Recently, Microsoft France also mentioned that Longhorn is Windows Server 2008.