Longhorn Server Beta Expected In Early August

The first beta of Longhorn Server looks like it will hit in early August, according to comments made earlier this week by Microsoft officials during a live chat session.

In the Wednesday online chat, Bob Muglia, the senior vice president in charge of the Windows server software line, fielded numerous questions, including several about the upcoming beta of the next generation server. He reaffirmed Microsoft's earlier promise to deliver the beta this summer, shortly after the beta of the client edition of Longhorn goes public.

At the end of the chat, the Microsoft moderator wrote "Please join us in the first part of August for a chat about Longhorn Server Beta 1." The Redmond, Wash.-based developer rarely holds online chat sessions that concentrate on a specific product -- as opposed to general issues -- before the product is released.

Muglia also hinted that Microsoft might develop a home version of Longhorn Server to manage multiple machines and the large amount of content -- video and audio -- that Microsoft sees being generated by PCs controlling multimedia in the house.