Microsoft to Gut Longhorn to Make 2006 Delivery Date

aidan_walsh

Link

"Longhorn is going to stop being a whole new thing and more of an XP with a lot of good new stuff," said one developer close to Microsoft, who requested anonymity.

Not good, IMHO... We were promised a revolutionary new operating system, and thats precisely what I was looking forward to... But what are we to expect now? Sounds like Longhorn will be to XP what XP was to 2000, some nice changes, but nothing radical... As for the features that remain, many of these sound like they are purely of aesthetic quality (in particular the desktop system... do we really need a 3D desktop? What possible productivity increases can we expect to gain from it?)

I, for one, am disappointed.

Fenster

Considering its a stripped down release getting rushed out the door, I think I'll stick with XP for now.

bus77

That's great news. Ive been waiting for slick 3d apps like the films for long enough. Nice one MS

hostyle

doodle_sketch wrote:

I, for one, am disappointed.

Are you unhapy with your current OS? If so, what are you looking for to be improved? Are these improvements mentioned anywhere in what is to be added to Longhorn?

No? Thought so. Microsoft havent thought of anything new that was useful in years.

I've seen no mention anywhere of major security improvements efforts with regards to Longhorn. They're going to give us WinFS - with the filesystem as a database; Avalon - a GUI that looks like Mac OSX; Indigo - 3d crap for the GUI that no one needs; and Monad - which is just trying to attract CLI geeks. It was always going to be more of the same. I;m not surprised or disappointed in the least.

Fenster

I personally think Windows needs extensive reworking under the hood than it does a bling new UI that I'll probably turn off as its distracting.

bus77

I coulnt give a s-hite about security/file systems/stabillity. All I care about is the new ways for software makers to put apps together. I want every startup to be a strobe light packed, pole dancing extravaganza... Every window I open to be a bump mapped piece of art...
Emails that fold up majesticly before my eyes as soon as I click "send"..

This is the best news Ive heard all week, I thought I was gona have to wait till 2008 for this stuff

Why dont yous try linux? I hear it's pretty stable now for doing the company accounts :rolleyes:

jesus_thats_gre

Fenster wrote:

Considering its a stripped down release getting rushed out the door, I think I'll stick with XP for now.

Cosidering it is not going to be released for 18 months, you do not have much choice now do you.

hostyle

bus77 wrote:

I coulnt give a s-hite about security/file systems/stabillity. All I care about is the new ways for software makers to put apps together. I want every startup to be a strobe light packed, pole dancing extravaganza... Every window I open to be a bump mapped piece of art...
Emails that fold up majesticly before my eyes as soon as I click "send"..

This is the best news Ive heard all week, I thought I was gona have to wait till 2008 for this stuff

Why dont yous try linux? I hear it's pretty stable now for doing the company accounts :rolleyes:

People like you are just part of the problem. Go on, give me more bad rep - I dare you.

Fenster

bus77 wrote:

Why dont yous try linux? I hear it's pretty stable now for doing the company accounts :rolleyes:

And gaming, and media playback, and security, and flexibility, and from the sheer ways I can customize it, for starters...

The bottom line is that we can rag on about our choice of operating systems all night, but that's not the topic at hand.

Jesus: Yes, its 18 months, but this is development of a new OS and an item from Microsoft besides. Their track record for bugs and security, all ragging aside, isn't great. SP2 for XP has just been released and already a "huge" security hole has been found. In short, I'm staying clear of Longhorn until its been out a few months.

bus77

hostyle wrote:

People like you are just part of the problem.

You think givin out is going to make them fix XP? You think a fully patched XP is going to make you happy? Listen, if your really pissed about it get Win98se and you wont have to worry about security. OHH BUT WIN98 ISNT AS STABLE AS XP! ... If it crashes you just reboot, takes 5 seconds, no problem.

What other features do you want in your operating system? Ive allready covered crashes and security.

hostyle wrote:

Go on, give me more bad rep - I dare you.

I would'nt give ya bad rep, but I cant now anyway because someone gave me bad rep for socking it to you moaners.

The only way to fully make any operating system secure while trying to add or retain features would be to give damn near every prosess it's own encryption key. And then you lot will be straight on here complaining that all your old programs dont work :rolleyes:

Mutant_Fruit

bus77 wrote:

The only way to fully make any operating system secure while trying to add or retain features would be to give damn near every prosess it's own encryption key. And then you lot will be straight on here complaining that all your old programs dont work :rolleyes:

In my opinion the only way to make ANYTHING secure is to employee some hackers to hack the bejaysus out of it. Then remove the bugs. Microsoft wont do that, and opensource is pretty much out there for people to check for holes if they want...

SantaHoe

bus77 wrote:

I want every startup to be a strobe light packed, pole dancing extravaganza... Every window I open to be a bump mapped piece of art...
Emails that fold up majesticly before my eyes as soon as I click "send"..

I wasn't excited about Longhorn before, but I am now!
I want a light that follows my mouse cursor and casts raytraced shadows behind windows its above, let those bump-maps glisten... oh and specular maps aswell, like in DOOM3.
I also want that 3D filesystem they used in Jurrasic Park... we've been a long time waiting for it.

clearz

SantaHoe wrote:

I also want that 3D filesystem they used in Jurrasic Park... we've been a long time waiting for it.

You are joking right. If longhorn looks like that I know were ill be putting it. In the bin. Lets see I want to open up internet explorer, hold on till I spend 5 minutes flying over to that 12 polygon 2 colour cube in the corner.

SantaHoe

Well it won't look like that though, we've got the advanced features of Direct3D nowdays.

Fenster

lol, it looks like the 3d effects will be somewhat more subtle than that.

SantaHoe

Hmm any specific articles or screenshots of these newfangled 3D thingies?

ColmOT [MSFT]

SantaHoe, there are no videos or animations (that I'm aware of) about Avalon yet, and we're not allowed to show it or say much about it yet, but you can get lots of documents & code snippits here
http://msdn.microsoft.com/Longhorn/understanding/pillars/avalon/default.aspx

SantaHoe

Ah good stuff.
Can you at least confirm or deny that we'll get the Jurrasic Park file manager to go with the new filesystem?

Actually perhaps a stupid question, but having not researched it much, it's something I've been wondering about... what's the story with these alpha versions I've seen talked about all over the net, I know they're unsupported, unfinished code etc., but are they leaks that most people really shouldn't have? a part of some distributed testing programme? or is it alright for Joe Bloggs developer/admin to poke around with?
Just curious as to what the official (or otherwise) line is on this.

ColmOT [MSFT]

The alpha builds that were relased at the PDC in Los Angelas months ago are probably what you're talking about. The build was 4051, and is very very old is the one that was distriubuted at PDC. To be honest, there's nothing extremely great about it from a UI point of view (it was all API enhancements at that stage)...and you'll need a damn good GFX card to see Avalon working (at least 128Mb if not 256). I've no idea what the official line is on that - I'm not a licnecing guru - I onlyu know what a: I'm told & b: what I read, and I've no desire to learn the ins and outs of the EULAs & agreements 4051 has a 180 day limititation, and it probably time bombed ( I can't remember exactly).

I'm trying to remember the 'Jurassic Park File Manager' (is it the one where it's in 3D space and the UI rotates around depending on the file that you want)? Avalon will be very different, and will require a high spec machine to be functional. If you have it give it a go, it even works under Virtual PC 2004, which would make it easier to setup and play with without any potential cross contamination with your other OSs if u dual boot.

CyberGhost

doodle_sketch wrote:

Link



Not good, IMHO... We were promised a revolutionary new operating system, and thats precisely what I was looking forward to... But what are we to expect now? Sounds like Longhorn will be to XP what XP was to 2000, some nice changes, but nothing radical... As for the features that remain, many of these sound like they are purely of aesthetic quality (in particular the desktop system... do we really need a 3D desktop? What possible productivity increases can we expect to gain from it?)

I, for one, am disappointed.

yea, that kinda sucks, but I can't say I'm very dissapointed!