Updating the KN Release Plan

We’ve updated the KN release plan and wanted to post some details. We’re planning on releasing KN in the first half of calendar year 2007 as a Technical Preview rather than as a supported product feature of Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007. As a Technical Preview, KN will still be available to customers as a web download at no additional cost and will include documentation and community support. It won’t, however, be supported or covered by standard product support services or warranties.

This update comes as a response to customer feedback. Across the board, people are excited about KN, but they’ve also stressed that they’d like to see KN integrated into the core Office Client and Server products rather than released as an add-on. After carefully considering the trade-offs, we think that’s the right way to go. The release next year will be a preview of capabilities we’ll be working to incorporate into Office in the future.

Technical Previews are best used to pilot new technologies and solicit feedback, and that’s exactly what we want to do. We hope that that customers who use the release in this way will not only gain valuable insight into how the technology can be implemented more broadly, but will also provide us with input that will be invaluable in integrating these features into future releases of the Office System. Stay tuned for more.