They did. It was called Windows NT. We all see how that worked out.
They they promised that Longhorn would be a complete rewrite. That didn't work out so well, and now Microsoft seems to be ready to rewrite 60% of the Longhorn (Vista) code anyway, due to major problems. And they're pulling in programmers from the XBox division and stating that it will be done in 9 months.
Vista is going to be a "Friday" car.
"Friday car".
I like that.
WindowsNT had a new kernel, but was still a legacy OS. I think the idea of a clean break is a completely clean break, like the move from OS9 to OSX: top to bottom, the guts are different.
Of course, what I'm really saying is that Windows needs a unix core...like that would ever happen.
I don't want to sound like I don't think Vista is in trouble. But that "rewrite 60%" story can't be right. That would take years. I think perhaps what they meant was that 60% of the .dlls needed rewrites somewhere within them.
If Vista needs a 60% rewrite, Microsoft is profoundly in trouble.
Vista is going to be a "Friday" car.
Heh!
The fresh rumors are that the problems with Vista are in the multimedia end; and/or that the entire thing is a disaster barely cobbled together into a functioning beta.
The latest build has no digital audio.
Also of note, last night's twitcast had Leo Laporte reporting that Allchin had planned to retire at the end of 2006, after the release of Vista; but with Vista's release being pushed into 2007 sometime, Allchin is going to retire at the end of 2006 anyway.
Does that mean the users can expect the first service pak to be a "Monday" car?
LOL