According to Microsoft Watch, last week, Microsoft released a Community Technology Preview (CTP) of Visual Studio 2005 -- code-named Whidbey -- to MSDN subscribers and will follow up with a December preview of Visual Studio Team System. A second beta may arrive in February, confirming earlier speculation that the product has been pushed back into 2005.

Essentially, the delay means that the Longhorn wave of products will slip further into the horizon. Just like Whidbey is a rest stop on the way to Longhorn, Whidbey itself is dependent on a certain level of progress in the development of Longhorn itself.

Arguably, Whidbey's delay also affects Yukon, Microsoft's next-generation SQL server as well as an array of other products including: Orcas, a feature build of Visual Studio; Office 12; and enterprise server products that rely on Yukon storage technologies and Whidbey as a backend for developers.

Microsoft has claimed that the products are not truly interdependent; however, Jupiter Research senior analyst Joe Wilcox has a different opinion stating a delay of Visual Studio Team System will create a ripple effect through Microsoft's future server product lines.

"The team version of Visual Studio .NET is yet another example of how Microsoft is creating more versions of some software products and requiring server software for some features. For example, Project was at one time a desktop product. Now businesses need buy a server component to use many features. Server components typically mean businesses pay more in two ways: for the actual software and for client-access licenses for connecting the desktop and server versions," Wilcox told BetaNews.

Wilcox continued, "With Office 2003, Microsoft added multiple features, such as collaboration and rights management, dependent on back-end server software. I expect to see Microsoft add even more server components to the Longhorn versions of upcoming products. Leading candidates for server versions include Excel, InfoPath, OneNote and several products from the Business Solutions division."

The Longhorn wave of Office server components requires a Whidbey deliverable.

BetaNews has contributing evidence that supports Wilcox's statement. As previously reported, Microsoft's upcoming Office 12 productivity suite is expected to ship with an array of new server products riding on its coattails. According to documents viewed by BetaNews, these include an Excel Server, Visio Server and a possible server version of the InfoPath electronic forms application.