Hey, there!
I was giving it a read on TWIN lists and thought you might want to know about the next generation of M$ Bull**** .... Might it give Linux a prod in the ribs ?!! Not likely ......
Go Linux Go!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Windows "Longhorn" FAQ
Once envisioned as a minor upgrade to Windows XP, Windows "Longhorn" took on all-new importance in early 2002 when Microsoft decided to reach for the brass ring and make this upcoming Windows release an all-encompassing major upgrade with a new security architecture called Palladium, a hardware
3D-enabled user interface, a brand-new, database-backed storage engine, and many more exciting new features. Here's the first--and most comprehensive--Longhorn FAQ ever created, constantly updated to include the latest information about this release.
NOTE: This FAQ was last updated March 9, 2004.
Q: What is Windows "Longhorn"?
A: "Longhorn" is the codename for a major wave of technology and platform
software from Microsoft. This generation of software will include new versions of Windows, Windows Server, .NET, MSN, Microsoft Office, and other
products.
Windows "Longhorn" is the next major desktop Windows release, which will follow Windows XP; there is also a minor Windows Server revision that will ship in the Longhorn wave. Originally expected to be a fairly minor upgrade,
Windows Longhorn will now include a number of new features including a
revised task-based (or "iterative") user interface, an extensible, dock-like, Sidebar, and a SQL Server 2003-based storage engine called WinFS (Windows Future Storage). Microsoft said that Longhorn would be a desktop-only elease in November, 2002, when the company told me that, "Customer requirements dictate our release strategies and timing for Windows products. Customers have asked that we map our server releases more closely to how they can consume and implement advances and innovations we deliver.
Given the deployment cycles and budgeting that customers work through, and
given the significant customer interest in our upcoming release of Windows
Server 2003, we have determined that another major release of Windows Server in the Longhorn client timeframe does not meet the needs of most of our customers." However, those plans were up in the air until mid-2003, when the company revealed, finally, that it would indeed ship a Longhorn Server
product as well.
Q: Will there be different Windows Longhorn versions?
A: Yes. Like Windows XP, Windows Longhorn will ship
with Home Edition,
Professional Edition, Tablet PC Edition, Media Center
Edition, AMD-64,
Itanium, and other versions. However, Microsoft has
alerted me that some
product names, especially those of the Home and
Professional editions, will
likely change.
Q: So what will be new and different in Windows
Longhorn?
A: Here's what we know about Longhorn at this early
stage:
· Longhorn will feature a task-based (or "iterative")
interface that goes
far beyond the task-based interface found today in
Windows XP. Microsoft has
been working to move beyond the dated desktop metaphor
still used by Mac OS
X and Linux; I explain some of Microsoft's early work
on task-based
interfaces in my old Activity Centers preview. This
new user interface, or
"user experience," is code-named "Aero" and is based
on a new .NET-based
graphics API called "Avalon," which replaces earlier
graphics APIs such as
GDI and GDI+.
· The Longhorn Start Menu and task bar will be
enhanced with a new Sidebar
component that can optionally appear locked to one
side of the desktop. The
Sidebar is an XML-based panel that includes links to
local and remote
resources.
· Longhorn will require 3D video hardware to render
special effects that
will make the screen more photorealistic and deep.
This doesn't mean that
the basic windows and mouse interface is being
replaced, just that it will
look a lot better. For more information, check out my
exhaustive Road to
Longhorn, Part Two showcase and my PDC 2003 coverage.
· Longhorn will optionally include the Palladium
security technology
Microsoft is developing with Intel and AMD (see the
next question for
details).
· Longhorn will include a database-like storage engine
called Windows Future
Storage (WinFS), which is based on technology from SQL
Server 2003
(code-named Yukon). This storage engine builds on NTFS
and will abstract
physical file locations from the user and allow for
the sorts of complex
data searching that are impossible today. For example,
today, your email
messages, contacts, Word documents, and music files
are all completely
separate. That won't be the case in Longhorn. WinFS
requires NTFS.
· Longhorn will include new anti-virus (AV) APIs that
will help developers
more easily integrate their wares into the base OS.
Microsoft will also
offer Longhorn customers a subscription-based AV
feature that use AutoUpdate
to keep your system up-to-date with new virus
signatures.
· Longhorn will include integrated recordable DVD
capabilities and will work
with every type of recordable DVD format. Digital
media enthusiasts will be
able to copy video from a digital camcorder directly
to recordable DVD,
bypassing the system's hard drive entirely, if
desired.
· Longhorn will include an advanced version of the
successful Error
Reporting Tool (ERT) that shipped in Windows XP; the goal is that only a small number of customers should have to report a bug to Microsoft before the company fixes it and ships the fix electronically and automatically to
users.
· Longhorn will include a new Setup routine that installs the OS in about 15
minutes.
· Longhorn will feature hundreds of new APIs that will
let provide access to the new system's features. The Win32 API from previous
Windows versions is being replaced by a new .NET-based API called WinFX,
for example. It will also feature a new communications and collaboration
subsystem, dubbed Indigo.
Q: I keep hearing that WinFS is a new file system. Is
Microsoft abandoning
NTFS?
A: No. WinFS is implemented as an add-on to NTFS and
is not a completely new
file system. Rather, it is a new storage engine built
on the NTFS file
system.
Q: So what's the point?
A: Microsoft is trying to make it easier for you to
find your data on our
ever-increasing hard drives. By adding relational
database capabilities to
the file system, it will take less time to find
documents, email, and other
data. After all, as one Microsoft executive asked me
recently, "Why can we
find anything we want on the Internet in seconds, but
it takes so long to
find our own data on our own PCs?" In addition to the
underlying WinFS
technology, Microsoft is also adding a new file system
concept called
Libraries, which will organize like collections of
data in Longhorn,
regardless of where they are physically stored in the
system. For example, a
Photos & Movies Library would collect links to every
digital photo and
digital video on your system.
"I should not care about location when I save," says
Microsoft VP Chris
Jones. "Why can't I just click on my computer and it
shows me my documents?
It is a computer. It should know what a document is,
what I have edited and
annotated, what I have searched for before, and what
other places I have
looked for documents. It is not just documents on my
computer I am looking
for. It is documents I care about."
Q: But Mac OS X already has a lot of these features.
What's the big deal?
A: Apple has implemented some basic desktop
composition features in Mac OS X
"Panther." But the basic problem with Mac OS X isn't
going away: It's a
classic desktop operating system that doesn't offer
anything in the way of
usability advancements over previous desktop operating
systems. Today,
Windows XP and its task-based interface are far
superior to anything in Mac
OS X. In the future, Longhorn will further distance
Windows from OS X. From
a graphical standpoint, there won't be any comparison.
As Microsoft revealed
at the PDC 2003 conference, Longhorn is far more
impressive technically than
Panther, and not just from a presentation perspective.
Q: Why even mention Mac OS X?
A: I only compare Windows with OS X because Apple CEO
Steve Jobs did. Once
he stops lying about OS X and Windows, I'll stop
correcting him.
Q: So what's changing from a developer's standpoint?
A: In the technology generations leading up to
Longhorn, Microsoft has been
moving to a .NET-based managed code environment dubbed
WinFX, and the
Longhorn generation will finally mark a clean split
with the Win32 APIs of
the past. That is, Win32 will be in maintenance mode,
and all new
development will occur with WinFX managed APIs. One
such API, Avalon, forms
the basis for the new Desktop Compositing Engine (DCE)
in Longhorn that
replaces GDI and GDI+. These and other new Longhorn
APIs will utilize the
XML Application markup language (XAML) to make
Longhorn more accessible to
developers than ever before. The idea is to
significantly reduce the number
of APIs and make the APIs more standardized. Today,
there are over 76,000
Win32 APIs, and countless wrappers. With Longhorn,
Microsoft hopes to reduce
the API set to 8,000 to 10,000.
Another significant change in Longhorn involves device
drivers. In the past,
Microsoft allowed customers to use non-signed drivers,
which helped
compatibility, but caused stability problems. No more:
In Longhorn, users
hoping to take advantage of the system's exciting new
capabilities will only
be able to use signed drivers.
Developers interested in Longhorn should examine the
Visual Studio .NET
"Whidbey" release, currently in beta, and the Longhorn
SDK. which includes
developer-accessible UI components and behaviors.
Q: This sounds like a huge change from today's
Windows. Will my current
applications still work with Longhorn?
A: Yes. Microsoft has even pledged to retain DOS
compatibility with
Longhorn, though it's currently unclear whether DOS
support will be improved
over what's available today in Windows XP.
Q: What's with this Palladium stuff I keep hearing
about?
A: One of the most exciting aspects of Longhorn is its
optional integration
with Palladium, Microsoft's technology for realizing
its Trustworthy
Computing vision. Palladium--now called Next
Generation Secure Computing
Base (NGSCB)--is basically a secure run-time
environment for Windows and
other operating systems that allows a coming
generation of software
applications and services to protect the end user from
privacy invasion,
outside hacking, spam, and other electronic attacks.
Palladium requires
special hardware security chips and microprocessors
(which will be made by
Intel and AMD) and doesn't interfere with the normal
operation of the PC.
That is, Palladium-based PCs will still operate
normally, working with
legacy operating systems and applications. But
specially-made Palladium
applications and services will offer a range of
features of functionality
not found in the non-Palladium world, and if the
initiative is successful,
we'll one day be running only Palladium-based
software.
If you're familiar with the .NET model, you might be
aware of the notion of
"managed" and "non-managed" (or legacy) code.
Palladium will institute a
similar model for PC software, where a trusted
execution mode is used for
Palladium applications and services and the old,
"untrusted" mode is used
for legacy code.
Microsoft designed Palladium around the following
ideals:
· Palladium will tell you who you're dealing with
online, and what they're
doing. It will uniquely identify you to your PC and
can limit what arrives
(and runs on) that computer. Information that comes in
from the Internet
will be verified before you can access it.
· Palladium protects information using encryption to
seal data so that
"snoops and thieves are thwarted." The system can
maintain document
integrity so that documents can't be altered without
your knowledge.
· Palladium stops viruses and worms. The system won't
run unauthorized
programs, preventing viruses from trashing your
system.
· Palladium stops spam. Spam will be stopped before it
even hits your email
inbox. Unsolicited mail that you might actually want
to receive will be
allowed through if it has credentials that meet your
user-defined standards.
· Palladium safeguards privacy. In addition to the
system's ability to seal
data on your PC, Palladium can also seal data sent
across the Internet using
software agents that ensure the data reaches only the
proper people.
Newsweek reports that the agent has been nicknamed "My
Man," a goof on ".NET
My Services," "My Documents," and other similar names
at Microsoft.
· Palladium controls information after it's sent from
your PC. Using Digital
Rights Management (DRM) technology, Palladium can be
used to securely
distribute music, movies, and other intellectual
property securely over the
Internet. Movie studios and the recording industry
could use this technology
to let their customers exercise their fair use rights
to copy audio CDs and
movies, for example. "It's a funny thing," says Bill
Gates. "We came at this
thinking about music, but then we realized that e-mail
and documents were
far more interesting domains." Gates says that
Palladium could ensure that
email designated as private could not be forwarded or
copied to other
people, for example. Or, the Newsweek reports reads,
"you could create Word
documents that could be read only in the next week. In
all cases, it would
be the user, not Microsoft, who sets these policies."
You can find out more about Palladium in my WinInfo
article, Microsoft's
Secret Plan to Secure the PC, which was written when
this initiative was
first revealed. But remember, there is a ton of
misinformation about
Palladium on the Internet ("It will require
proprietary Microsoft changes to
TCP/IP," "It won't run on Linux," and other similar
claptrap), but most of
that is completely untrue. People fear what they don't
understand, but
Palladium is about securing the PC and protecting your
privacy, plain and
simple. Microsoft isn't trying to usurp your PC.
Q: I thought the next version of Windows was
code-named "Blackcomb."
A: The existence of Longhorn was first revealed by
Windows product manager
Tom Laemmel, who I first met July 17, 2001 during an
XP press tour. Laemmel
spilled the beans to eWeek a few days later, and Microsoft executive vice president Jim Allchin verified that a new interim release, Longhorn, would ship before Blackcomb. Since then, information about Longhorn has appeared in Microsoft and Department of Justice (DOJ) legal filings related to the Microsoft antitrust case. It's real, and now it's common knowledge. The Longhorn wave will include a minor Windows Server update, and Blackcomb will be the next major Windows Server update. Details on Blackcomb, obviously, are sketchy at this point. As the company told me cently, "Another major release of Windows Server will follow Windows Server
2003; it is code named Blackcomb. We do not have a firm release date at this
time, and Microsoft will determine a release timeframe based on what
customers tell us theyrequire."
At the May 2003 WinHEC 2003 trade show, Microsoft
executive David Thompson
said that Blackcomb would ship about 2-3 years after
Longhorn and would
feature new versions of the so-called out-of-band
technologies the company
is shipping throughout 2003 for Windows Server 2003.
These technologies
include, among others, the iSCSI initiator in June,
NAS 3.0 in Q2 2003,
Automated Deployment Services (ADS) in Q3 2003, Small
Business Server 2003
in Q3 2003, Virtual Server in Q4 2003, and the
AMD/64-bit version of Windows
Server 2003, while will be delivered "in Service Pack
1 for Windows Server
2003 by the end of 2003," Thompson said. Whether this
information has
changed is open to debate: Perhaps Longhorn Server
will include some of this
technology, given the ever-changing schedule.
Q: So when will Longhorn ship?
A: Unofficially, Longhorn is still due in late 2005
despite reports to the
contrary.
Q: When will the Longhorn beta start?
A: Summer 2004. Microsoft recently provided developers
with an early alpha
build of Longhorn (4051) and the Longhorn SDK at the
Professional Developers
Conference (PDC) in Los Angeles. Beta 1 will ship in
summer 2004, Microsoft
says, followed by a Beta 2 release and then the final
release.
Q: So how can I get Longhorn?
A: Right now, only PDC 2003 attendees and MSDN
customers can get Longhorn
(along with other related technologies, such as the
Whidbey beta, Yukon
beta, and the Longhorn SDK). Microsoft says it will
release Beta 1 to a much
wider audience.
Q: What's up with the name Longhorn?
A: As I first revealed, the Longhorn name wasn't
chosen randomly. Remember
that Windows XP was code-named Whistler and the next
version of Windows, at
the time, was code-named Blackcomb. Both of these names come from ski areas in British Columbia, close to Microsoft's headquarters. At the foot of Whistler Mountain, there is a saloon named Longhorn that serves the local skiing population. So if you're ever in the area and want to take in some local color, Longhorn is a nice stop. after you're done with Whistler.
Q: I have Longhorn build 4051 and it's not that great. How can I get it to
work better?
A: Check out my Longhorn build 4051 Tips & Tricks
page, which solves some
common problems with this build.
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Windows LongHorn - New Generation of M$ Fiddlesticks!!!
