How Microsoft Is Clipping Longhorn

Business Week ^ | 4/19/2004 (issue date) | Jay Greene

[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.

[Fiddlstix]

Bump

[babyface00]

I'd like to spend some time on discussing alternatives in more detail, but I'm in the middle of a huge project right now and it wouldn't be fair to my employer and my deadline commitment to spend too much time on them right now. I'll try and hit the thread again next week.

My next project is installing a Linux server into an organization. It will likely be the first of several, although we do anticipate keeping some MS servers due to two key apps that require them. The rest of the machines will be fair game for Linux. The desktops are next, if the business needs justify it. From what I've seen of XP and Longhorn, Linux has a good chance of taking over a large segment of my desktops.

[Hank Rearden]

My (restaurant) business backbone runs on Win2k Pro, and is unbelievably stable. The order-management core is MS-SQL based and even during the infrequent problems we've had, it has never lost a single order. I find that impressive; even when we had to power down to restart everything, it came back up exactly in the middle of what we were doing when it crashed.

The Mac platform has nothing even remotely suitable for our operational needs, so we're on Win2k Pro (although my office PC, part of the network, is WinXP Pro). That being said, I've never had the desire or need to own a Mac, and have tried to help enough Mac owners with their "simple" machines that I can't get excited about them at all.

Lots of flash and dazzle in MacmoonieWorld, but I'm trying to run a business.

[js1138]

I've been working with SQL server for over 10 years without losing a line of data or experiencing a SQL crash. I really don't know or care whether it will run 10,000 users. It's bulletproof for a small business and not expensive.

[Bush2000]

As far as I know there is no way to hook HOME up to our 2000 servers...

No wonder. XP Home was designed to integrate with small home networks, not corporate networks. (or ... "Why can't I hammer this nail with a screwdriver?")

[TopQuark]

Thanks for your reply and good luck with your project. They are lucky to have someone as thoughtful as you are doing this for them.

[Hank Rearden]

From my experience, I'd agree with the "bulletproof" assessment of MS-SQL on Win2kPro. I'm impressed that, no matter how hard I prang it, it never drops a stitch. I also like being able to run the entire system by remote control from home with freeware utilities.