Microsoft Waffles On Yukon Time Frame

Microsoft Senior Vice President Paul Flessner said Monday morning the company will get a beta of its next-generation database out this summer, indicating what could be a slip from the June time frame other Microsoft executives had promised just weeks ago.

But another Microsoft executive offered a different version of the story. Stan Sorensen, director of SQL Server Product management, later on Monday reiterated the company's previously stated commitment to get a beta, albeit a "private" one, out to some 1,000 users this month.

"This will be a controlled distribution," he noted. A bigger, general beta is now slated for early next year, he said. The long-awaited Yukon, with its promised support of the Common Runtime Language engine, is now expected to ship in the second half of 2004.

Microsoft had hoped to get a beta out in time for its big TechEd 2003 show this week but could not deliver, several sources said this spring. (See story.)

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Other SQL Server milestones included Monday's distribution at TechEd of Beta 1 of reporting services for SQL Server 2000. The final product, an add-on to the current database, is due late this year. (See story.)

In other database news, Microsoft will drop the price of SQL Server Developer's Edition from $499 to $49 on Aug. 1. Sorensen said the decision was not a direct response to perceived momentum by low-cost MySQL, an open-source database, but said "we'd be fools to make price an impediment to [developer] adoption."