Though the delay to getting the 'new' 2.0 version of Spybot S&D released has been far too long, the direction has been relatively clear and dicussed in the beta forums here for ages. Just look for PepiMK's comments in any of the 2.0 threads there.

For a more coherent look at the plans and directions, though somewhat old, see the blog entries by PepiMK at this link:

http://forums.spybot.info/blog.php?u=1&blogcategoryid=6

There's also supposedly a way to follow him on Twitter, though I personally have no interest in such daily drivel myself, so I've never seen it.

Overall, the technologies in the 1.x versions of Spybot S&D are relatively ancient and badly in need of replacement. Obviously Patrick and others know this, but apparently the daily demands have caused 2.0 development to drag, resulting in maintaining an outdated platform well beyond its useful life.

Unfortunately, I believe the attempt to maintain support for older operating systems has stretched a small group far beyond what they can handle, so I'd rather see them drop outdated os platforms and focus their efforts on developing for only those currently supported by Microsoft. I believe this even though that will orphan my own Windows 2000 Pro PC in July of this year, but that's how it should be, since Microsoft will no longer support that platform for even critical security updates past that point anyway.

Bitman