Originally Posted by mmarsh

You have to realize Microsoft doesn't use the same time system normal people do. They are on "Microsoft time".

For example:

Say you're copying a large file from one source to another. The copying file window might say "1 minute" (till completion) but when 10 (normal time) minutes go by and the window says '30 seconds', thats Microsoft time.

VISTA was no different. Longhorn was announced very shortly after XP was released and that it would be ready with 2-3 years. Then around 2003, MS was saying within a year (2004), but in fact it took 5 (normal) years to come out. The rule of thumb is whenever MS mentions a release date, add 6 months to it.

So when Microsoft says Vienna will be out in 2 years, you need to add an additional 2 years total (+1 additional year, the time they need to remove all the features they promised, but never got to work, like WinFS).