Microsoft senior VP for Windows Brian Valentine has brought a certain pleasing symmetry to Longhorn roadmapping by telling the good people at IDG that there may well be a server version of Windows Longhorn after all. This, says Computerworld, "despite claims to the contrary."

Indeed, we have one of these claims quite handy, made last November by, er, Microsoft senior VP for Windows Brian Valentine. Actually Valentine doesn't seem to have been trying to convince Computerworld that Microsoft never suggested there would be no server Longhorn in the first place; he describes Microsoft's statements to this effect as being "a bit premature," saying that Longhorn will require additional services at the server end, and that it has yet to be decided how these will be packaged and delivered.

Another consideration Valentine covers with Computerworld is the cost to customers of new server OS deployments, and therefore the difficulties inherent in releasing them too close together. He figures the cycle can't be any faster than two to three years (which will still seem pretty fast to the luckless server purchaser), but note that 2005 is dangerously close to the two year end of the scale. At the other end of the scale this starts to run into Blackcomb, which will need a new server version, and which is scheduled for 2007-2008.

And you thought world domination was easy? ®