Microsoft has missed its promised deadline of shipping NT 5.0 beta three by Thanksgiving Day and has now quietly said the beta will be ready in Q1 1999. The slippage emerged At Comdex/Fall, two weeks ago, meaning that it is now likely that the gold version will not be available until Q3 1999, at the earliest. At the Intel Developer Forum in Palm Springs in mid-August, a senior Microsoft architect promised that it would deliver beta three by last weekend. He told delegates then: “I’ve more confidence than ever about our ship schedule. This is a 1999 product. There will be a beta out around Thanksgiving.” (See IDF coverage) Microsoft is now engaged in an exercise to time the release of Windows NT 5.0 with the other elements of its vaunted Win2000 marketing package. ®