Vista Beta 2? Not this year

As predicted here, Microsoft has announced that the second beta version of Windows Vista will not be released this year.

The company did not give a timeline for the release but said it would make a further announcement next year, presumably January.

News.com quotes Amitabh Srivastava, a corporate vice president in Microsoft’s Windows unit : “First and foremost, we are still on track for general availability in the second half of calendar year 2006.”

“Microsoft also said on Tuesday that it will end the monthly schedule for interim Community Technology Preview updates of the Vista code. The third CTP release, planned for November, now will not happen until December, it said.”

Srivastava said that the feedback Microsoft is getting from the CTP releases makes the timing of the next beta less critical. “The Beta 2 is still an important milestone for broad customer testing, but it is less urgent,.”

Update: Microsoft said yesterday it has accelerated development of Windows Vista to get most features code complete by the end of December, and that all features would be integrated by “early” next year. “Customers will have Windows Vista sooner in their hands than any previous Windows release, to enable us to receive meaningful Windows feedback much earlier and test with code that will more accurately reflect the product we ship.” [The Register]