Microsoft Clips Longhorn 657
Gr8Apes writes "Microsoft is clipping Longhorn to get the already-delayed follow-up to Windows XP out the door by 2006. MS has decided to remove some of the most ambitious features. Blackcomb is the version to follow Longhorn, and is expected at the end of the decade. The full new file system feature has been moved to Blackcomb. Other notable parts of the story, in MS's efforts to get its DRM into play, a new version, Windows XP Premium will start shipping with new PCs, which will include a new version of the infamous Windows Media Player. This version will have the ability to shop at on-line stores like the one MS plans to launch later this year. It's their move to 'outflank Apple'."
WinFS WILL be in the next version, just no network (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Microsoft needs exactly ONE new product (Score:2, Informative)
1. keep up to date with patches
2. run a good firewall
3. don't click on mail attachments
4. don't click on documents to load them, only load them through the applications that created them
5. don't use p2p to download pirated software/music/videos
then you're safe. these are simple precautions that should be used on ANY operating system, macos included now if you read the latest virus reports.
Re: Future of Samba (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Microsoft needs exactly ONE new product (Score:5, Informative)
Windows Media Player seems to have the startling ability to launch IE to view websites which are somehow embedded in (at least) video files. An ambitious coder could embed a link in a video file to a site which exploits a vulnerability and run arbitrary code.
Re: Future of Samba (Score:5, Informative)
I have a beta copy of Longhorn running here on a desktop. WinFS is running on the My Documents portion of the drive, and I can still share this as normal over the network without problems from both other Windows boxes and my Redhat box. Incidentally, at one point WinFS was slated to only run under My Documents, so I was actually more surprised to see that a full OS-wide implementation of it was still on the cards. Suffice to say that my experience of its current implementation has been very good - it definitely is an improvement over current filing systems, especially regarding search operations.
If you want more info on it, there's a Windows Media file here [microsoft.com] which goes into some detail about WinFS, how it works and its pros and cons.
Re:What remains? (Score:3, Informative)
BTW, if you think Avalon is just about "graphics effects like transparency" you obviously don't get it. I think Avalon is the single most exciting thing about Longhorn - the ability to break the link between screen resolution and size of items on screen is great.
Re: Future of Samba (Score:4, Informative)
Samba will continue. Not everyone will upgrade to Whistler or Blackcomb. Remember, Microsoft is STILL! trying to push users off Windows 95, 98, and NT, and it's already been several years since XP was released. Imagine the uphill battle in several years to get businesses off 2000...
This seems like a not so sneaky move by Microsoft to shut out interoperability between linux and windows platforms.
So what? Microsoft Windows Professional (2000/XP) and NT Workstation/Server, as far as I know, have generally included downgrade options. So in 2006, build your next PC with an OEM license for "Whistler" (just get the Pro edition) and use your Windows 2000 media.
Read the OEM EULA. Note that this does not apply to retail versions unless you do volume licensing with Microsoft.
Same goes for Server versions, if you're into that kind of thing. I, however, for one, have given up on Windows servers and have moved to Linux/Samba already. Reason: Microsoft may say the TCO for Windows is much lower than Linux, but they neglect all the other software you need to buy for Windows to make it actually do something (antivirus, mail server, more antivirus, defrag programs, database servers, and so forth).
The biggest mistake that can be made is to use the Home version of Windows. It not only is a crippled version of the Professional version (at least, when you define crippled as having certain features, e.g., logging in to a network), but it doesn't have any downgrade rights AT ALL.
I don't know anything about the WinFS network formats, and if they will include the ability of backwards compatibility with other OS types on the network.
If Microsoft all of a sudden turns off backwards compatibility, businesses will cry foul. If Windows isn't backward compatible, then what's the point of keeping it on a corporate network?
Either businesses will stick to their "legacy" Windows 2000 and XP or begin migrating to other platforms. I can envision the former in many small businesses without dedicated techs and the latter in larger corporations.
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Offtopic, if there are
Re:Microsoft needs exactly ONE new product (Score:4, Informative)
Apples move is not the same as microsofts (Score:3, Informative)
The thing Microsoft is talking is locking in with OTHER vendors, to expand a monopoly...
That's a different sort of issue. One is illegal, the other isn't.
Remember too, that the rules of business change when you are CONVICTED of being a monopoly.. or at least they are supposed to.. seems nothing is being enforced..
Re:2000 Pro vs. XP Pro (Question) (Score:3, Informative)
The only person that I know that had an issue with activation was someone who changed their motherboard out. After the re-activation failed, he just called the number that it told him to, explained what he did, and in 5 minutes he had a new activation code and no problems.
Product activation was just a Red Herring that fanatics used to spread FUD. Unless, of course, you are using priated software.
Re:Surprising? (Score:3, Informative)
Ironically Microsoft did the same thing to IBM, announcing in 92 or 93 that Windows 95 would have all the features that made OS/2 great.
Even more ironically, IBM later decided to hold off purchasing Windows 98 licenses (IIRC, it's been a while) because Windows 2000 was right around the corner (in corporate terms, 2-3 years is "Right around the corner.") and was to be based on the NT kernel so it'd be a lot more stable than '98.
I don't know who Microsoft is trying to show up now, though. Apple, maybe...
Re:What remains? (Score:2, Informative)
Re:What remains? (Score:5, Informative)
It's miles ahead compared to their old command prompt emulator in Windows XP already in the beta I have, and seems to finally catch up with well-known unix shells and in some cases race beyond some of them (IMHO of course!). It also by default uses command aliases like "ls", "rm", "ps", "pwd", etc.
It can finally transparently access other file systems by "mounting" (not sure if the term is that, but the end result is the same) them through "providers" so you can for example navigate through your registry without having to rewrite the "cd" command, list the contents of a DNS server with the "ls" command, and so on, and lots lots more. So, in other words, they've got rid of the hard coded "C:\" and similar one-letter drives, and C: will just be a pointer to the FileStore (FS) provider. Finally I can do it the Amiga way and create drives like FONTS:, haha...
I must say I was fascinated by some parts, even if I've used a bunch of *nix shells in the past. Especially because it's completely object oriented. Here's an example script:
$p = get/process
foreach ($p)
{
$p.FileName.ToString()
}
Of course, "ps" is just an alias for the "get/process" command and when you just type "ps" in the console, it just uses its method for console output to generate the text you see. I find this one of the most exciting features of Longhorn myself, and was pleasantly surprised by it, since I had thought MS would go all eye candy and hide their command prompt even further in the "don't go here"-corners of the OS.
Re:Outflank == Copy (Score:3, Informative)
fs
p.s. That list is in no particular order and only an item are two are thrown in for chuckles.
A very incomplete list off the top of my head (Score:5, Informative)
* Avalon--presentation system that is completely hardware-accelerated and vector-based. One video showed two Notepads rotating around while still completely usable at the same time a video played in Media Player. Old apps will be compatible.
* XAML and other technologies--I've said it before, but it was just such a cool example. During an MSDN video (freely available at the site), the dev used Win32 Emacs to write a 10-15 XAML app that let him update his blog, complete with resized vector graphics and a video of moving clouds looping on the background of the window, all using the command-line
* WinFS will still exist. They're just cutting a few features that will probably be re-introduced in a service pack anyway. WinFS is incredibly exciting--one WinFS dev went to the command line and did a query for certain employees within the last week, and it came up in less than a second. No more brute-force searching. Also, no file drives. And yet, they're retaining folder and drive structures in case you want to operate that way.
* Aero--this is their top-secret interface yet to be unvieled. See, Longhorn has multiple tiers of visual operation. If you can't handle the effects, it scales back to a lesser tier, going all the way down to an unaccelerated 2D inteface like that of Windows 2000. Aero is the top tier and is supposed to be, according to them, "photorealistic" and will be a new interface for Windows taking advantage of 3D acceleration. They said they don't want to reveal any of it until release because they fear it will be ripped off by competitors (a fair judgment considering all the ripped-off Start menus and taskbars on standard Linux desktops...).
* Christ, man, there's more, but I'll get accused of being a Microsoftie even more than the trolls already do, so I'll stop.
Re:WinFS WILL be in the next version, just no netw (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Doesnt Apple do the same thing? (Score:4, Informative)
How exactly is Apple monopolistic?
Does Apple own the Power PC processor architecture? They used to be a financial contributor, but from what I've seen, its basically an IBM and Motorola (Motorola being the short bus rider of the two) show. And it looks like IBM will be pushing mobos using PowerPC 970 (the G5) chips for Linux enthusiasts so Apple doesn't even have exclusivity on one of its compelling selling points.
Does Apple restrict retailers from bundling Yellow Dog Linux distributions with its hardware? (like Microsoft did against Digital Research's CP/M, DR-DOS, and GEM? IBM's OS/2? BeOS? Linux?). And speaking of Linux, behind the scenes, Apple isn't trying to cripple Linux distributions from running on its hardware via BIOS chipsets like Microsoft is with the "Trusted Computing" scheme either. You might also check the various operating systems XServe is certified with as well...
Does Apple build a web-browser to crush competitors that flaunts standards like Microsoft's Internet Explorer? Nope...Safari is based upon an open-source web browser (Konqueror/KHTML) for Linux, and Apple is an active code contributor.
Does Apple try to crush open source operating systems like Microsoft does with Linux? Nope. Apple's OS X is built atop Free BSD, a Unix deriviative.
Does Apple push its own instant messaging program in an effort to crush other market leaders like Microsoft does? Nope, iChat is a repackaged (industry market share leader) AOL Instant Messenger with extra nifty features.
Does Apple push a self-serving music format to perpetuate its operating system monopoly like Microsoft? Nope. Apple's iTunes uses the AAC format, which was developed by Dolby, not Microsoft. And the iTunes Music Store is available on both the Windows and Mac platforms. Sure, we can argue it should be issued for the Linux platform as well and that the iPod should also throw in support for OGG, but those accessory issues to this argument.
Does Apple push a proprietary graphics API onto the industry like Microsoft does with D3D/DirectX? Nope, Apple supports OpenGL.
Has Apple tried to squash Adobe's PDF file format like Microsoft is trying to do via Microsoft patented XML schemes via Office 2003? Nope, Apple has thrown its support behind PDF.
Since starting and later retreating from the PDA market, has Apple tried to cripple Palm in any manner like Microsoft has? Nope, Apple has gone out of its way to support Palm OS products with native support.
Does Apple try to push its own mobile phone platform onto the industry like Microsoft? Nope. Apple in fact is the computer company that has done the most to support Bluetooth directly in its operating system. If you don't believe me, try to sync a Bluetooth equipped phone (say, a Sony Ericsson phone like the T616) on a Windows machine and then on a Mac.
Is Apple trying to muscle its way into the growing internet search business like Microsoft's designs against Google? Nope. The Safari web brower, like Mozilla FireFox, has a built-in Google Search window. I concede that there are rumors that Apple is in negotiations behind-closed-doors with Yahoo about throwing its support behind Yahoo's Search. But supporting either of these giants is different than Microsoft trying to keep its operating system monopoly from disappearing.
And despite favoring its own technology such as Firewire, it was Apple who legitimized Intel's USB platform (itself a deriviative of Atari's SIO port on the 400/800 8-bit computer line from 1979 and created by the same engineer
Re:WinFS WILL be in the next version, just no netw (Score:2, Informative)
2. Yes, it most certainly does work with SMB file sharing. Try it before you expect it not to work.
Re:WinFS now delayed for over a decade. (Score:3, Informative)
Here's some info on the NTFS concept:
http://linux-ntfs.sourceforge.net/ntfs/concepts
Re:WinFS WILL be in the next version, just no netw (Score:2, Informative)
Ack. I need to clarify this. What I mean by this is if you delete it in explorer, not using "junction -d".
Re: Future of Samba (Score:3, Informative)
http://www.tomshardware.com/storage/20040129/in