Microsoft News Tracker

Where have we heard this one before? Microsoft may have released Windows Home Server to manufacturing in July but star OEM Hewlett-Packard has delayed release of its MediaSmart Home Server until Microsoft provides a promised fix pack:

According to a statement issued by Microsoft, the company has “identified a number of ways to make the product even better since the initial release.” Microsoft says the updates include fine tuning of the out-of-box experience with added prompts and dialog boxes guiding consumers through the setup process. Other enhancements include more reliable remote server access, automatic router and firewall setting tools, and enhancements to synchronizing features.

HP claims that last minute bug hunting and tweaks by Microsoft are going to delay the release of its MediaSmart product by “75 to 120 days.” HP says now the MediaSmart server will ship late fall in time for the holidays.

HP had hoped to announce product pricing and availability at the home theater trade show CEDIA on September 5 in Denver, Colorado.

I guess this is a new variant of waiting until the first fix pack for a Microsoft operating system before deploying. However, I’m puzzled that if the fixes were only a few tweaks, why HP could not have shipped and the users updated later? Either the problems are worse than Microsoft has revealed or HP needed an excuse to slip the ship date.