Seven Things To Keep In Mind About Longhorn
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As the Professional Developers Conference (PDC) countdown clock ticks down —at this writing, we're 19 days, 14 hours and 36 minutes away from the Longhorn stampede, according to one enthusiast's Web site — it's a good time to start separating Longhorn fact from fiction. Check Out ScottW's PDC Countdown Clock (under "News") This feat is a lot harder than it seems, as the next version of Windows already has taken on mythic proportions, surpassing even that of Windows 95, despite the fact that the first "official" technical-preview build isn't even out yet, and the final code isn't expected until 2005+. When an operating system (at least at this point) is set to include an estimated 700 new features, according to one Microsoft insider, there's bound to be trouble in discerning what's the kitchen sink vs. real, quantifiable new components.
One of my colleagues joked that a laundry list of things to know about Longhorn would be simple to compile: 1. It's late; 2. It's later than you think; 3. It's even later than that. Rather than take the easy way out, why not help folks get a better handle on exactly what Longhorn is/isn't, especially as the PDC hype-o-meter really gets in gear? In that spirit, here is a list of the key subsystems around which Microsoft is allegedly organizing Longhorn. (This is based on a document that we hear Microsoft's own Windows team is circulating internally.) The alleged 1,000-plus-page "Book of Longhorn" is divided into seven sections:
There's still a lot TBD (to be determined) regarding Longhorn. We hear the client version of the operating system will come in consumer and business flavors. Exactly how many of each is far from final.
But Microsoft is building a bunch of Longhorn schema that will be specific to different "user scenarios," such as gaming, shopping, audio/visual entertainment and small business computing, company officials have hinted. (The company's eHome division — the folks that brought you last week's new release of Windows XP Media Center Edition — are employing the same "scenario"/eXPerience computing concepts.) Read More About Media Center 2004 Here It seems like a good time to point out, as Microsoft officials found themselves doing just prior to the launch of Windows 95, that Longhorn is software. It's not a cure for cancer. It's not the successor to the South Beach Diet. (In fact, it's going to be the fattest release of Windows ever.) It's not expected to be able to run on the majority of older desktop machines. And it's not clear yet what it will do to legacy applications that don't make use of all the whiz-bang new APIs. What's your first take? Will Longhorn live up to the hype and help pull the PC and application-software markets out of the doldrums? Or will it break more than it fixes? Write me at mswatch@ziffdavis.com and give me your two cents. And in the meantime, you might want to check out some of these sites for more on Longhorn. A Handful of Handy Longhorn References Microsoft's MSDN Longhorn Developer Center (Set to go live Oct. 27) |
