Beta 1 of Longhorn is still on track for this summer, Microsoft corporate VP of developer and platform evangelism told attendees of Microsoft's worldwide partner conference during a Friday morning keynote address. Sanjay Parthasarathy reiterated that Longhorn Beta 1, which will not include the new user interface bits, is due this summer. Beta 2, which will showcase the new interface, is due out some time in the first part of 2006. The final Longhorn client release is still, as of now, due out in the latter half of 2006. "I am very comfortable we are going to make that date," Partharsarathy said, though he added, as Microsoft execs always do, that they won't ship the final release until it is ready.