Microsoft gives an early look at next Windows

The Financial Times ^ | October 27 2003 | Richard Waters

[afraidfortherepublic]

Bill Gates on Monday offered the first public look at Longhorn, the next generation of the Windows PC operating system that he said would be Microsoft's "biggest release of this decade and the biggest since Windows 95."

However, the Microsoft chairman gave no timetable for the launch of the software, which has already slipped to a later timetable than originally thought. With Longhorn now not expected before 2006, Microsoft faces a gap in its new product cycle that has left a question over its growth rate in the meantime.

Steve Ballmer, chief executive officer, has called Longhorn a "bet the company" product for Microsoft and insisted it will not be released before the company is confident it is ready.

Despite the delays, Microsoft gave an early look at the next Windows on Monday in an effort to build backing for the operating system among the many independent software developers who write their own applications to run on PCs. Microsoft's success depends heavily on expanding the loose community of developers who produce code that runs on its operating system, rather than defecting to the rival Java community, which is supported by IBM, Sun and others.

Before an audience of several thousand independent software developers at a company event in Los Angeles, Mr Gates said that Longhorn would make up for many of the disappointed expectations from the last boom in technology spending. The new Windows will provide a more flexible and robust platform that makes things like electronic commerce more widespread, he added.

The next version of the ubiquitous PC software will come with a new "sidebar" running down one side of the screen. The sidebar, which stays visible while the PC user works in an application, can show things like a "buddy list" of contacts, display a slide show of photographs or receive other types of media.

At the heart of the next Windows will be a new format for storing data that Microsoft has worked on intermittently for more than a decade. Rather than each software application saving information in a different format, a new standardised file system known as WinFS will create a single, unified system.

That means users will be able to find any information on their own PCs or across their corporate networks with a single search, then collate different types of data, whether in the form of text documents, spread sheets, video or audio recordings, Microsoft executives said.

Other key technologies in Longhorn will include a more powerful 3D graphics capability known as Avalon, which has been adapted from high-performance computer game systems, and a communications technology called Indigo, which will let users integrate information from other sources with data held on their desktops.

The company also said Longhorn would be more secure and reliable. Mr Gates first promised these things with the "Trustworthy Computing" initiative he launched three years ago, but Microsoft has been embarrassed this year by a spate of computer worms and viruses that exploit weaknesses in Windows.

[afraidfortherepublic]

And we'll be asked to change yet again. I'm still happy with Win98, thank you very much. Works for me and happily runs my office network. The running sidebar with pictures and IMs operating while you work sounds like the current version of MSN -- my home email provider. It wouldn't be a big deal, except that older versions will no longer be supported.

[afraidfortherepublic]

FYI

[thoughtomator]

Prayers needed

[South40]

I'll stick with Linux.

[staytrue]

The sidebar, which stays visible while the PC user works in an application

F.U.M.S.

[proust]

"biggest release of this decade and the biggest since Windows 95."

Oh no :/ I'm still reeling from the win 95 rollout when Microsoft ruined the classic Stones song "Start Me Up."

[bmwcyle]

It will only increase new firewall software sales.

[NotQuiteCricket]

As a computer tech - I have to say that I'm tired of MS. I got tired with them when the produced XP and made it such a pain to fix/replace system files (dlls & ocx). I'm done with upgrading. ME sucked (the worst of both worlds unstable w/ system file protection). Win 2k is the best of breed IMO (of the MS product line).

http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/features/2002/jul02/0724palladiumwp.asp

Palladium has caused a lot of privacy concerns, and is the bones of their "trustworthy" computing.

I think I'm going to learn BeaOS.

[Petronski]

[Wisconsin]

This reminds me of the old joke about the man telling the woman how great sex "was going to be".

A week ago Microsoft admitted they would miss their deadline for longhorn(umpteenth admission, umpteenth delay).

So now they tell us how great it is going to be to try to keep people from switching.

[Petronski]

Is this necessary? Do we really need a user interface laid out like a magazine page? "Werdz don werk. We likes pikchurs."

[Petronski]

That's exactly what happened to Windows 97....er....Windows 98.

[Gorzaloon]

Palladium has caused a lot of privacy concerns, and is the bones of their "trustworthy" computing.

They probably demand your checking acount and interbank routing number before it registers.

Windows ME showed that "Windows" can function as a verb.

I owe a lot to WinXP. It converted me to Linux.

I defended MS for years ("So shut up and write a better OS"), because a lot of the detractors were lonely Mac cultists, but the XP experience was so outrageous I want nothing further to do with Redmund.

[Petronski]

What's your current distro and winmanager? Which is your favorite?

[Izzy Dunne]

when Microsoft ruined the classic Stones song "Start Me Up."

Did you notice that they didn't play this part:
You make a grown man cryyyyyy...
You make a grown man cryyyyyy...

[mikegi]

Win 2k is the best of breed IMO (of the MS product line).

Still using Win2k here. I put WinXP on my wife's machine but didn't like it enough to install on mine. Just can't get used to the "new and improved" shell. I guess I could run the shell in old fashioned mode but then I'd be right back to Win2k. However, there is one XP feature that will probably tip me into buying it for my machine: ClearType. I have an LCD monitor now and CT is far superior to regular Font Smoothing on it.

I haven't read very much on Longhorn but so far it isn't knocking my socks off. I haven't seen anything on the 3d shell stuff. A *useful* 3d shell is very difficult to make (as opposed to simple eye candy). I haven't seen a useful one yet.

[Gorzaloon]

Red Hat. :-)

[upchuck]

FYI, another thread on this same topic.

[Scenic Sounds]

Bill Gates on Monday offered the first public look at Longhorn,

A "high tech" ping to someone who understands such things. ;-)

[Petronski]

I like RedHat a lot, but it needs a feature that Mandrake calls 'supermount.' I don't want the torture of trying to get Samba and fstab to see my windows drives, network and local. I just want it to work, and Mandrake does that.

Anyway, my point is, is there a RedHat trick or shortcut to get all the drives automounted quickly and simply?