[xi_hyperon]

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.

It will be interesting to see the extent of the scaling back when (if) it is released.

[benb]

Before anyone gets too cocky, remember Copland.

[osiris]

Originally posted by benb:
Before anyone gets too cocky, remember Copland.

Yeah, that was a crappy movie.

OS 8 wasn't as bad, especially if you lived with 7.5.1=>..2=>..3 and MacTCP. 8.6 was still the best, even over 9.2.2.


Anywayz, it looks like MS is all smoke and mirrors again, promising eternal salvation, delivering half-assed damnation. I wish them luck, at the least we'll have competetion. (har har har dee har har)

[funkboy]

Originally posted by benb:
Before anyone gets too cocky, remember Copland.

Right. But thankfully that's behind us, and Apple has more than likely learned its lesson and won't do that again. Not for an OS, anyway.

Mac OS X has already gotten us over the hump MS is still fighting at... I think with their legacy support and whatnot, it'll be sometime before they get lithe upgrades like Apple is putting out every year.

If anything, Apple should have the privilege of putting the year after their OS... though I'm glad they don't. It's too much like EA Sports or something, heh.

[insha]

Somebody needs to tell the folks at BW that Apple's OS X alreday does all the things (and then some) promised by Microsloth in their next full version release of Windoze. And now they are trying to copy Apple's implementation of iTMS... M$ innovation my a$$.

And what is up with tha Premium version?!

Osiris is right on the money when he/she said, "[M$] promising eternal salvation, delivering half-assed damnation."

Made me LOL; but it is sooooo true.

[Link]

Looks like there won't be so much new and revolutionary about longhorn afterall.

[Superchicken]

Anyone know if they ever did get the file system thing working?

[xi_hyperon]

Originally posted by benb:
Before anyone gets too cocky, remember Copland.

Hmm, in that case, I suppose that means Blackcomb = Gershwin.

NEXT TIME._ While Microsoft has scaled back the Longhorn vision, its ambition hasn't disappeared. It plans to continue pursuing the sweeping goal of creating a new, full-featured file system. But it's deferring that until Blackcomb, the code name for the version of Windows that follows Longhorn.

"It's fair to say we've had very ambitious dreams that were very large for Longhorn," Peterson said in the Apr. 1 meeting. "Some of the things that we do in the big dream, we are going to do in the Blackcomb time frame." When will Blackcomb debut? Probably near the end of the decade.

[::maroma::]

Holy ****ing shite!! I mean, I knew MS couldn't innovate their way out of a paper bag, but this is just getting ridiculous.

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. The first devices, made by Creative Technology (CREAF ), iRiver, and Samsung, will debut later this year. The goal, Fester said in his presentation, is to "outflank Apple," (AAPL ) whose iPod device and iTunes Music Store have quickly set the standard for digital music.

Has MS ever had an original idea in their entire existence?? I can't think of one. What bugs me more about this than their sheer lack of originality and their blatant thievery, is that the MS drones will eat this stuff up. "Outflank Apple" -- BAH! SCREW YOU!!

[Mr. Blur]

it is not like microsoft has not done this before. remember that windoze 2000 was originally "nt 5" and that got delayed and delayed...they just took out some of the stuff they couldn't get working (sorry, can't recall all the features...) and renamed it win 2000.

[Lateralus]

Anybody remember Windows 98, Windows 98 SE and Windows 98 Plus?

...

[MacGorilla]

Whats sadder is that with M$'s monopoly they can easily crush Apple in the music biz like did Netscape.

[theolein]

Originally posted by benb:
Before anyone gets too cocky, remember Copland.

Before anyone thinks MS can keep a deadline, or a promise, remember Win2000, also known as WinNT5. When MS first started talking about it in 1997, they said it would be out "in a year or so" and that it would have an "object oriented file system". When it finally arrived in 2000, WinFS (the new file system) had been quietly dropped. Given that it was supposed to appear in Longhorn, and has been shoved into the post Longhorn product, I wonder if we will ever see it.

[itai195]

Originally posted by theolein:
Before anyone thinks MS can keep a deadline, or a promise, remember Win2000, also known as WinNT5.

Other examples -- Windows 2003 Server (which went through about 5 name changes as well) and SQL Server "Yukon."

OTOH, I think it's fair to say that the quality of their software since Win2k has improved and personally I don't mind the tradeoff.

[Lateralus]

Originally posted by MacGorilla:
Whats sadder is that with M$'s monopoly they can easily crush Apple in the music biz like did Netscape.

Then why haven't they done it?

[Truepop]

Originally posted by PowerMacMan:
Then why haven't they done it?

Microsoft is allowing Apple to grow so while they expand their install by having the store built in to windows, they can say, "hey we aren't the bad guys right now, Apple is still number one."

Then when the final card is dealt Microsoft will unleash the discounts for users to switch, saying "it's already on your computer and you didn't know it, plus hey it's cheaper to use."

When the competition is over and only microsoft is left standing, they will raise prices and say "you had a choice and you picked us and now there is no one left. we aren't the bad guys, the consumers used it because it was there and cheaper per song. we are only raising prices because our friends in the music industry want us to."

[mitchell_pgh]

The real question is "when will their OS not feel like crap"

I try to be fair about it, but their OS is all over the place. The consistency is horrible.