Longhorn for 2006, according to Gates

At Microsoft IT Forum 2004 Copenhagen technological conference Bill Gates, founder and current Chairman and Chief Software Architect of Microsoft, has said the future operating system of Microsoft called Longhorn will be released in 2006. There had been fears that Longhorn would not ship until 2007 or later. Microsoft has responded by cutting features from Longhorn, notably WinFS. Features planned for Longhorn include a new 3D graphic user interface, a more sophisticated replacement for MS-DOS, and execute for processor NX, or No Execute, security features that prevents some malicious code from being run.

This is expected to be the first Microsoft release since Windows XP in October of 2001. There has, however, been some speculation of a "Windows XP Reloaded" in the interim. Longhorn is currently in Alpha as a preview-release to Microsoft Developer Network (MSDN) subscribers.