ComputerWorld: Gates opens window on Windows 2000 delay

“Hedging on a deadline set earlier by Microsoft Corp., Bill
Gates Wednesday said he is ‘pretty sure’ that Windows 2000 can be
delivered by year’s end. … While some observers said they
would wait longer for quality, others said the operating system
needs to face real-world usage now.”

“Few corporate users are likely to rush wide adoption of Windows
2000, analysts predict. ‘Windows 2000 is not a 1999 event anyway,’
said analyst Rob Enderle of Giga Information Group Inc. in
Cambridge, Mass.

After hearing Gates’ comments, analyst Michael Kwatinetz of
Credit Suisse First Boston in New York predicted that Microsoft
will officially launch Windows 2000 at Comdex in Las Vegas in
November, but won’t ship the final product until early next
year.

But the longer it takes for gold code to reach evaluation teams,
the longer it will take for them to plan the eventual rollouts,
Enderle said. Deployments could therefore be delayed by as much as
three months, he said.”

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