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 How Microsoft Is Clipping Longhorn
Business Week ^ | 4/19/2004 (issue date) | Jay Greene

Posted on 04/09/2004 1:31:40 PM PDT by Vermonter

Online Extra: How Microsoft Is Clipping Longhorn

To get the already-delayed follow-up to Windows XP out the door by 2006, it has decided to omit some of the most ambitious features

Never in its history has Microsoft (MSFT ) had to wait so long between Windows releases. When Windows XP launched in October, 2001, researcher Gartner Inc. expected the software giant to gin up a new version within two years. But Microsoft's ambitious follow-up to Windows XP, code-named Longhorn, has bogged down in delays. The company rarely discloses timelines for products, lest it miss its targets. But in copies of two e-mail messages obtained by BusinessWeek, Microsoft lays out a roadmap that shows Longhorn debuting in the first six months of 2006.

What's more, the e-mails disclose Microsoft's plans to cut some of the most far-reaching pieces of Longhorn in order to get the product shipped. For instance, Microsoft had planned to overhaul the file system, the way information is stored. The goal had been to change the way files relate to one another, so that users could quickly find documents, e-mail, and photos that have some connection to one another. It would be easy, for example, to locate not just digital photos, but e-mail from people in them. It's an enormous undertaking.

(Excerpt) Read more at yahoo.businessweek.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; News/Current Events; Technical
KEYWORDS: longhorn; lowqualitycrap; microsoft; windows
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1 posted on 04/09/2004 1:31:41 PM PDT by Vermonter
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To: Vermonter
It's an enormous undertaking.
You had three years, nearly unlimited resources, and armies of the best engineers that Russia and Asia can produce! GET IT DONE YOU MORONS!
2 posted on 04/09/2004 1:35:22 PM PDT by Asclepius (protectionists would outsource our dignity and prosperity in return for illusory job security)
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To: All
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Thanks for donating to Free Republic!

Move your locale up the leaderboard!

3 posted on 04/09/2004 1:37:00 PM PDT by Support Free Republic (If Woody had gone straight to the police, this would never have happened!)
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To: Vermonter
They'd better hurry up! All those XP and 2000 versions of the operating system software are wearing out with use and pretty soon won't be able to run. Why, computers need a brand new model of the OS every year or so!
4 posted on 04/09/2004 1:40:47 PM PDT by Revolting cat! ("In the end, nothing explains anything!")
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To: Revolting cat!
You got that right, cat (or may I call you revolting?)

The changes also affect Microsoft's plan to make the next version of its Office software work only on Longhorn. The new plans call for that Office package to work on previous versions of Windows as well.

Hence the new Operating System every few years. They not only get to sell us a new OS, but if they do it right, we ultimately have to rebuy all our software to accomodate. Never mind that all these things already do more or less what we want them to, and nobody's crying out for features that couldn't be accomplished by a patch or two.

5 posted on 04/09/2004 1:45:50 PM PDT by prion
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To: Trajan88; COEXERJ145
How Microsoft Is Clipping Longhorn
6 posted on 04/09/2004 1:50:34 PM PDT by Paleo Conservative (Do not remove this tag under penalty of law.)
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To: Vermonter
I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm not clamoring for a better version of media player.

If they want my business in the future, they'd better address their security problems, something they appear to be doing (once again) as an afterthought.
7 posted on 04/09/2004 1:50:46 PM PDT by babyface00
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To: Vermonter
I'm surprised Windows XP doesn't get better feedback from users. I think it's many, many times better than any of the earlier versions. I have Windows 2000 on a couple of computers, and it's equally stable, but it seems to be more allergic to programs it doesn't like. Win2K and WinXP are much more stable than Win95/98/ME. Especially ME, which was a disaster.
8 posted on 04/09/2004 1:54:00 PM PDT by Cicero (Marcus Tullius)
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To: babyface00
And Springboard will alert users when a new application tries to open a port, essentially a side door into the operating system that programs use to exchange information. Viruses often exploit open ports, and Springboard gives users the ability to keep them shut.

I can see it now...users automatically clicking OK every time some silly Microsoft message box pops up and asks them about accessing a port. After the fourth or fifth time, for the average user, it will become a reflex.

Isn't this the same mechanism ("are you sure you want to...") that's supposed to keep people from deleting files by mistake?

Doesn't work real well, in my experience.
9 posted on 04/09/2004 1:55:05 PM PDT by babyface00
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To: Vermonter
I'm still running Windows ME on my home pc, and it works fine...but with Longhorn comin' out in '06, I'll wait 'til next year to buy a good bargain computer with XP on it...the manufacturers will probably want to get rid of the hardware that won't be compatible w/LH.
10 posted on 04/09/2004 1:58:42 PM PDT by Recovering_Democrat (I'm so glad to no longer be associated with the Party of Dependence on Government!)
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To: Cicero
I'm surprised Windows XP doesn't get better feedback from users

Whatever...I still have a devil of a time getting my 20 new XP machines to work in a multiuser environment. What are there, some 850 possible permissions? ~sigh

11 posted on 04/09/2004 2:02:08 PM PDT by Drango (2 FReep is 2B --- 2B is 2 FReep)
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To: Vermonter; Bush2000
As a Macaholic, may I be so bold?

The company plans to release a new product, internally known as Windows XP Premium, that combines Windows XP Professional with an updated version of Windows Media Player. Premium will be available only on new PCs, not in boxes at retail. The new media player software lets online music stores -- including one that Microsoft plans to launch later this year -- snap right into the design, so that users can easily buy music from inside the player application.

The software will also work seamlessly with the Portable Media Player, handheld devices that run Microsoft software.

Wow. I wonder where they came up with this idea? Who would have ever thought of doing something like this?

It's been like this since I was working for the city of Austin and all the guys with stomachs big enough to use their navels for koozie cups were running around with t-shirts that said "real men don't use mice" on them. PC users run around calling Apple irrelevent and overpriced, and claiming nobody uses Apple, then BAMMO! what a stroke of genius by MS! Incorporate a MOUSE into the OS. Who would have ever thought of it? I guess I should be grateful, though. Apple would probably go out of business if it weren't for all the people that use "real computers" buying them so they can reverse engineer, rip off and produce the next version of Windows, which will probably be called something really original, like "M-OSX".

BTW, Bush2000, I know your week of being polite is over, so feel free to blast away.

12 posted on 04/09/2004 2:08:08 PM PDT by Richard Kimball
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To: Vermonter
Longhorn is beginning to smell like Apple's 'Pink' operating system. That one had so many neat features they never got it ready to ship.

So9

13 posted on 04/09/2004 2:08:35 PM PDT by Servant of the 9 (Goldwater Republican)
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To: babyface00
but I'm not clamoring for a better version of media player.

It's already out. It's called Winamp v5.0.3. It's so good they skipped a number.

I recently doenloaded it and installed and it is...the bomb. It now does video and gives access to streaming Internet audio/radio of ALL types and Internet video and TV of ALL types.

Wanna listen to Old Time Radio? No problem. Want to watch full screen classic episodes of The Andy Griffith Show? No problem. It is skinnable with version 2 or version 3 skins or with tons of new modern looking themes that are included with the package.

I was skeptical at first because I hated version 3...but this new version blows Media Player away!

14 posted on 04/09/2004 2:10:53 PM PDT by Bloody Sam Roberts (ø¤º°`°º¤ø,¸¸,ø¤º°`°º¤ø,¸¸,Election '04...It's going to be a bumpy ride,¸¸,ø¤º°`°º¤ø,¸¸,ø¤º°`°º¤ø)
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To: Cicero
I'm surprised Windows XP doesn't get better feedback from users.

Because it does what it's supposed to. I use W2k at home and see no reason to upgrade. I haven't encountered anything I want to run that won't. For the fires couple of years there were some hardware devices that didn't have drivers, but that went away.

Anyone who used windows prior to 2000 has reason to think it sucks.

15 posted on 04/09/2004 2:12:20 PM PDT by js1138 (In a minute there is time, for decisions and revisions which a minute will reverse. J Forbes Kerry)
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To: Drango
If your using HOME XP it can be a real bitch. However, they did make it a little difficult to connect with servers other than their own even with XP PRO.

My arms are getting tired from doing handstands trying to get permissions right with certain applications.


16 posted on 04/09/2004 2:15:36 PM PDT by unixfox (Close the borders, problems solved!)
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To: Richard Kimball
PC users run around calling Apple irrelevent and overpriced

But it is overpriced and irrelevant.

17 posted on 04/09/2004 2:17:08 PM PDT by rivercat (Welcome to California. Now go home.)
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To: Servant of the 9
I have the coffee thermos, with a big red "8" on it, from the Mac Developers' Conference when they were still promising to deliver.
18 posted on 04/09/2004 2:17:42 PM PDT by eno_ (Freedom Lite - it's almost worth defending)
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To: unixfox
Nahhhh we're using XP Pro. As far as I know there is no way to hook HOME up to our 2000 servers...I've take care of 260 desktops all of which are '98 except the last 20 are XP's. I can't even get the XP's to print to the 98. I need a vacation...
19 posted on 04/09/2004 2:25:24 PM PDT by Drango (2 FReep is 2B --- 2B is 2 FReep)
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To: prion
They not only get to sell us a new OS, but if they do it right, we ultimately have to rebuy all our software to accomodate.

Not just software, but new computers as well. The Microsoft OS gets so bloated with each new release that you can't even run it on a computer more than 5 years old.

20 posted on 04/09/2004 2:31:05 PM PDT by PAR35
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