I don’t recall as much drama with any previous service pack as compared to the Windows Vista SP1. Recent rumors suggest that the beta version will be available next week, and that the final version will be out in November. There is a new wrinkle in the information Microsoft is giving out that may suggest something different.

A ZD Net article published today says that at Microsoft’s Worldwide Partner Conference, which kicked off today in Denver, Kevin Turner, Microsoft Chief Operating Officer, said that “Windows Server 2008, won’t have its formal launch until next year. Microsoft plans to launch that product, as well as the next version of its SQL Server database and Visual Studio developer tools at an event on February 27 in Los Angeles.”

Now that can be interpreted in a couple ways. It could be that February 27th will be the first day that you can get your hands on Server 2008. Another possibility though could relate to the ‘formal release’ part, which might suggest that it will be available sooner, but the formal introduction won’t happen until February 27th.

So why am I talking about Windows Server 2008? There have been suggestions that Windows Vista SP1 will be released at the same time as Windows Server 2008. If this is the case, and if Server 2008 will actually become available on February 27th, then that would suggest Vista SP1 won’t be released in November, as the recent rumor suggests. Instead, it will be out next year, which ties in with what Microsoft has told the Department of Justice in relation to their anti-trust case, and it’s relation to Google’s complaints.

With so much flip-flopping going on, I’m just going to stick with my initial November 30th prediction, but this sure does make me wonder. For many, this release will help determine their deployment timeline, but for me, it really doesn’t matter. I won’t be rolling out Vista on a large scale until next fall, so this is more like a Microsoft soap opera. They sure do keep it interesting!