Microsoft is preparing a second edition of Windows Server 2003, to lumber in and fill the increasingly yawing void between now and when Longhorn might finally coast into view. The updated software's codename, R2, seemed innocuous enough until Sneak learned that the upcoming desktop gap-filler is no longer called Windows XP Reloaded but is now labelled D2. The combined desktop-server offering, R2-D2, will please the web's legions of Star Wars fans (who even after Send in the Clones must still outnumber those feigning an ongoing interest in the wobbly Matrix trilogy). But Sneak does worry that Microsoft might be tempting fate. After all the problems it has had with Longhorn's schedule, why would the firm name two vital interim products after a wayward and incomprehensible mobile swing-bin? Unless, of course, it's an unconscious admission that they're rubbish.

28 May 2004