Microsoft silent on NT 5 content

Microsoft has promised that the second beta of Windows NT 5.0 will arrive in April, but refused to state what it will contain. The second beta represents the cut-off point for determining the feature set that will make it into the final product, to be shipped late this year or early next year. The first beta of NT 5.0 lacked IntelliMirror management technology. This feature will be the lynchpin in providing desktop configuration and software management over the network, and is essential if Microsoft is to demonstrate zero administration, according to Ashim Pal, senior analyst with the Meta Group. "This is a key part of NT 5.0, allowing applications to be managed more easily than in the previous version," Pal explained. "IntelliMirror is a very complex piece of technology and for proper evaluation to begin with the second beta it has to work properly." Pal also noted that the Active Directory of the product's first beta for NT 5.0 was still "sluggish", casting doubt over the scalability of NT. "This is what users will be looking for in the second beta," he said. Sources close to Microsoft in the US said that next-generation clustering technology will also be included in the next beta. The second version of Microsoft's Cluster Server should enable four node failover and load balancing, sources said. However, stability is the key issue, according to Carl Allmark, an NT systems analyst testing the first beta of NT 5.0 for Britannia Airlines. "The version I have keeps crashing. This has to improve with the next release," he said. "As we move to become a global company, multi-domain scalability becomes more of an issue, as does replication over the WAN and remote administration. NT is the best option for usability but it has to demonstrate it can be as robust as products like Novell's 4.11." Microsoft would not release details of the second beta for NT 5.0 and said only that it will be released in the second quarter.