Microsoft execs at last have admitted publicly, at last, that Longhorn will not ship in 2005. Does it matter?

At Microsoft's worldwide partner conference this week, Microsoft finally admitted that Longhorn won't see the light of day until 2006.
This isn't a guess on my part, educated or otherwise. Or flame bait. Or conjecture. This is straight from the horses' mouths.

At the show this week, several Microsoft execs casually slipped into their presentations that Longhorn is three years away from debut. Last time I did the math, that was not 2005, as promised just a few months ago. Nor is it even the wishy-washy "2005+" that a few execs had taken to attaching to their product timetables. The new target is 2006, plain and simple.

Full story here.