“IT managers shouldn’t hold their breaths waiting for any of the new 64-bit Windows Server or Windows XP versions that Microsoft was shooting to deliver this year. And ditto with Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1 (SP1), the security-focused update originally targeted to ship this year,” Mary Jo Foley reports for Microsoft Watch.

“Now, Microsoft officials are saying these updates won’t ship until some time in ‘the first half of 2005.’ They cited quality concerns when asked for the cause of the delay,” Foley reports. Full article here.

This news comes as many wait fruitlessly (pun intended) for Microsoft’s answer to Mac OS X, code-named Windows ‘Longhorn,” of which The Register’s John Lettice has reported, “2005 seems definitely off the agenda, and while it might ship in 2006, it could be delayed until 2008 or 2009, according to Gartner. According to a report of the Gartner Data Center Conference in Information Week, Gartner research VP Tom Bittman puts the likely release window between late 2006 and mid-2008.”

MacDailyNews Take: Simon and Garfunkel wrote it best:

“Slip sliding away, slip sliding away
You know the nearer your destination, the more you slip sliding away.”

Moo.