Posted on 10/28/2003 8:57:03 AM PST by 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.
LOL...Roundhead is a bit given to hyperbole isn't he? And yes I'm still happy with Win98 here at work myself.
I doubt the $455 Dell was "comparable" (the eMac has an flat-panel display, lots of I/O ports, etc.). The reason that Apple won't sell $500 Macs is that the compromises that they'd need to make to build such a cheap machine just aren't worth it for them. If you want to fault Apple for not producing a really low-end Mac for $500, that's a fair enough complaint but not the complaint I keep hearing. The complaint generally implies that the "same" Mac is about twice as expensive as a PC. That eMac is not the "same" as the $455 Dell and if you add the same features to that Dell that the eMac has, you'll usually wind up with a Dell that costs roughly what the eMac costs.
Would you consider it fair to complain that Fords are outrageously expensive because you can get a new Hyundai Accent for $9,999 and the Ford Focus starts at $12,795? Would you consider it fair to argue that Fords are "twice as expensive" as Hyundais by comparing the Accent to a $20,000 Taurus with more features? The problem that Apple has is more like a comparison between Hyundai and Volkwagen. You can't get a Volkswagen for under $15,580 (list). But base Golf is not exactly comparable to the base Accent. Do you fault Volkswagen and Ford for not offering a $10,000 car when Hyundai does?
I'm beating the pricing issue to death, yet again, because Macs are simply not as expensive as they once were and the price difference between a Mac and a Dell for a machine with comparable features is either small or there isn't a difference.
Ah, but you don't need to buy another Mac in 1.5 to 2 years because the Mac OSX upgrades usually run faster on the same hardware than the previous version, if you need to bother upgrading at all. I expect to get 3-5 years out of a Mac. The main limitation that I'm running into with my iBook is the video card, not the CPU or memory. That wouldn't be as much of a problem if I owned a desktop, nor would it be a problem if I had purchased my iBook a bit later.
Mac's are nice no doubt but current Intel based hardware systems are far from crap, my $500 intel box at home runs my webserver, a mail-server, a cvs server, ftp, ssh, ....
Using Linux, which you had to install. My iBook also runs all of that server. And most of it comes with the installed OS, because OSX is based on FreeBSD. Honestly, how many people who purchase a $500 Dell are going to install Linux? Of course Linux can also help you extend the life of your PC hardware. I had a 486 with 32mb of RAM that I used as a desktop machine for about 5 years running Linux, long after that hardware was insufficient to run Windows (I used that machine until 2000).
If you took your head out of the elietest clouds you would see most people would rather spend less than five hundred for a 2Ghz, 256MB, 30GB intel box than 800$ for macs worst offering.
I would question "most people". A lot of the machines that they sell in places like CompUSA are not base models. And if you switch over to the laptop side, where the PC vendor can only be so cheap, you'll see that Macs laptops and PC laptops compare very favorable to each other. This is why Apple still breaks into the top 5 for laptop sales.
Now if were going to talk about OS yes MS is crap soon after getting my box it was ripped of in favor of Linux.. But that me not most people..
If you want to talk about what "most people" want above, I think it is fair for me to point out that "most people" don't rip out Windows and install Linux.
I cannot imagine how or why.
What you might want to do is put all of your program DATA in subdirectories of a main directory called 'DATA' (kinda like 'my documents'), so that if you want to back up your data, you can just drag that directory into the burner software and fly.
I went with Macintosh after spending over $50 on ink and photo paper trying to synchronize my printer with my monitor AND my photo service. The comparisons you make are terrific for someone who's happy with a Lexmark printout on typing paper, but trying to do any actual photo work on the type of system you're suggesting is a joke, and that's the point. I've messed around with the crappy systems you're suggesting, and it's not worth the headache. Yes, if all I did was email and Word, it would probably be okay, as long as I set the autosave to every 10 minutes, and didn't have to ever hook up a USB device, as many versions of Windows completely lose the port when you D/C the device (yes, I know about mounting and unmounting, and Windoze still loses the USB ports.)
The average person does not need photo quality printing hence apple has priced themselves out of 90% of the home use market.. while those 90% are not ultra way out cool apple users like you I guess they just dont know what they need...
BTW this was a discussion about hardware, not software so the way windows handels USB (I have never seen anything after 98sp2 lose a port) Linux does just fine with it.
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