This past Monday, March 13, Microsoft’s Greg Randall made a general post in The Official Microsoft Connections Blog about Windows Vista and its new features. In that post, Randall reiterated the party line that Vista would be released in the “second half of this year.” However, the next day another member of the Microsoft Connections Blog posted “This is the year – the year that Microsoft releases the newest version of Windows. Yes, Vista will be released in November of this year.”

That was a bit of a surprise. Nearly everyone expected that Vista would be released before the holidays. However, rumors and estimates have varied wildly from late summer to October for the official launch. With the product apparently progessing well based on the beta releases that I’ve seen, I’m a little surprised that Microsoft is waiting until November. Nevertheless, there you have it.