Windows Server vice president Bill Laing said in an interview on Friday that the server version of Windows 7 will ship this calendar year.
Although Laing's comments referred to Windows Server 2008 R2 and not to the desktop version, server products traditionally ship after desktop operating systems based on the same code base, owing to greater testing needs.
"We've really been executing," Laing said, noting that although the R2 product is a relatively minor release for the server unit, it still packs more features than he would have expected a year-and-a-half ago.
As was the case with Windows 7, Microsoft shipped a beta version of the server update in January, after sharing it with some early customers in December. The next version, a release candidate, is due soon. Laing did not say whether it would ship by May, as is being speculated on the desktop side of things.
"I'm not sure yet," Laing said. "It's not far away, but we don't have a final date yet."
Microsoft's desktop unit had not committed to launching Windows 7 this year, although it has been working toward that goal for months.
A spokeswoman for the desktop Windows unit did not immediately have any update to Microsoft's longstanding official comment, which is that Windows 7 will ship by next January.
