Mmmmm - Microsoft delays some products again, while some products released earlier

Well, the news that SQL Server 2008 has been delayed should probably not have taken me by too much surprise, as I haven't received any great degree of confidence from Microsoft that the release date was set for Q2, and there wasn't even a beta in sight!  The publicly available CTP has not so far even been feature complete - so it looks like there's still a lot of work to do.

This is not necessarily a problem.  As a database platform, we expect this to be VERY solid once it does ship, so I prefer them to take the time to make sure it works before releasing it.  The constant focus on trying to line up the release with the large February release party for Windows Server 2008 and Visual Studio 2008, probably driven by marketing, is what really let this one down.

In fact, over the years, Microsoft has a lot to complain about when it reviews it's marketing efforts.  Just look at the chaos confusion that surrounded the .Net release.  no one could figure out what it was at the time.  In fact, I'm still trying to explain it to some colleagues.

It's a shame though, as I've been harbouring a secret hope that the improvements I've seen around the VS2008 release (coming out slightly earlier that expected, and being considered a VERY solid release all round) would be visible in the other products too.  Sadly, that doesn't seem to be the case for release schedules, though the quality of the other products should be excellent.

More info here.