Thanks to Good Morning Silicon Valley…

A research note released this week from Gartner predicts that Microsoft will miss its end-of-year ship date for Windows Vista. “Microsoft’s track record is clear; it consistently misses target dates for major operating system releases,” the firm wrote. “We don’t expect broad availability of Windows Vista until at least 2Q07, which is nine to 12 months after Beta 2.” According to Gartner, Microsoft will likely need at least nine months to clean up and fix bugs found in Vista after the Beta 2 release. Now, historically Microsoft has missed the ship date of most every OS it’s produced, so it doesn’t take a clairvoyant to intuit that it may miss Vista’s latest ship date as well, especially since it’s been slipping almost since the day it was set.

Microsoft says:

“We respectfully disagree with Gartner’s views around timing of the final delivery of Windows Vista,” a Microsoft spokesman told CNET News. “We remain on track to deliver Windows Vista Beta 2 in the second quarter and to deliver the final product to volume-license customers in November 2006 and to other businesses and consumers in January 2007.”

So now you know. Or not, as the case may be.