“Longhorn needs a new name. It’s not just because I’m tired of the bovine references and the ‘shorthorn’ jokes. No, the problem is that the future version of Windows formerly known as Longhorn in many ways won’t resemble the Longhorn that Microsoft described last fall at its Professional Developers Conference,” Mike Ricciuti writes for CNET News. “Why can’t Microsoft–the world’s largest software company, with thousands of talented programmers and billions of dollars in the bank–bring the unified storage concept to life?”
“Next year, Apple plans to launch new search tools [Spotlight] as part of the Tiger release of OS X. And the Linux camp isn’t far behind: Novell says it’s retooling its iFolder software to give its SuSE Linux unified search capabilities,’ Ricciuti writes. “The capabilities of these various schemes vary, and details are sketchy. But clearly, Microsoft–which popularized the idea of unified search–will likely lose the race to market with actual product. Now the challenge for the company is to convince customers that Longhorn–or whatever you think we should call it–is still worth waiting for.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Was it ever worth waiting for Longhorn, even if it did have all of its promised features? Of course, we already have Mac OS X Panther today, we’re not stuck with Windows XP, so forgive us for not awaiting the promise of ‘Longhorn’ with bated breath. Moo.
Of course, M$ had to popularize the idea otherwise it might never be developed. M$ doesn’t actually innovate, they steal, er, um, borrow, from others. Because vendors other than Apple are developing the idea, M$ is free to steal from anyone, and avoid the apprearance of monopolistic practices because “everyone” is developing this technology.
just another giant patch and “theme” for xp.
moo
Why don’t they call it Windows XP SP3?
Chuckle Chuckle
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MDN…please fix this error:
“Was ever worth waiting for Longhorn even if it did have all of its promised features?”
to
Was it ever worth waiting for Longhorn, even if it did have all of its promised features?
..or something to that effect…
Well, I, for one, wait with much anticipation for the release of Longhorn….
Why ?
I’m curious to see how many apps it breaks, how many security holes it will have, and how much easier it will be for the malware writers to have fun with it !!
Gates and his WinLemmings just dont get it…do they ?
“Why don’t they call it Windows XP SP3?”
While that may be all “Longhorn” may be in reality, MS wants to make money off of this release. That means they have to change the name in order to fool the sheep into spending money for a service pack.
And they complain about OS X. At least we can point out new features.
Progress in OS development is based on product not promises. It has been 9 years since MS promised Longhorn’s release and still the world waits. By the time MS offers something that may or may not be likened to Longhorn it is probable that MS will be so far behind the curve of OS development that their efforts will be practically irrelevant.
I have no confidence in MS to do much more than provide its consumers with minor and incremental changes to its existing DOS-based OS coupled with numerous and regular security patches. MS is being crushed by its own weight of incompetence and complacency
What stinks is that M$ can really take all the time they want. When they release it, they’ll pump a ton of money into marketing, and all the drones will go out and buy it. And the reviewers will find it so “revolutionary”, even though Apple and probably Linus will have had something similar but better out for a while by then. Remember the hoopla around Windows 95?
Longhorn -> Wrongborn
iggyb, sad but all too true. Microsoft will release Longhorn with enough fanfare to put a brass band to shame. When M$ snaps its fingers the media will fall in line to give all the free “advertisement” (under the guise of news stories) they can.
The average person will be mindlessly attracted by the noise and shell out his/her money.
To Ed:
But they do have new features. You know, all those broken apps�that’s a feature of any release of Windows!
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WinFS is still being promised as a “beta” at Launch and a “service pack” later. I have no doubt that they will eventually ship the whole thing. The real question is: “Will anybody want it?’
iggyb & Mac Daddy:
Ideally, the longer the wait, the greater the anticipation, and the more likely that Longhorn will be reviewed with stringent analysis and rigorously compared with existing Apple and Linux OS’s.
Realistically, most Windows users will be so ecstatic from their decade-long wait that objectivity will be shot, pure emotionalism will be rampant, and a spending spree will ensue to validate their mindless fascination with MS. Pathetic.
Longhorn has been renamed.
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,1640995,00.asp
Linux isn’t far behind.. ??
PFFFT yes it is..
Wait wait wait.. the next version will be an XP upgrade! So they’re still based on XP.. and their adding the three pillars individually..
Ah.. Uh oh…
THEY”RE STILL BASED ON XP..
which is still based on Win95…
Which is a complete mess..
BASTARDS.. I thought they were going to start from the ground up…
the delays are due to going back and including XP sp2 in the longhorn release..
what bullshit.. they had the chance to start from scratch.. but they won’t do it.
RE: ” Realistically, most Windows users will be so ecstatic from their decade-long wait that objectivity will be shot, pure emotionalism will be rampant, and a spending spree will ensue to validate their mindless fascination with MS. Pathetic.”
Absolutely true.
I work for a manufacturer of motherboards, high end type specialized for specific industries. Some of these motherboards sell for $45,000.
I have a co-worker, huge gamer, (that literally is all he uses Windows for, and it is amazing how many of those people exist) who is literally ecstatic that Longhorn will be delayed.
I am not joking, he is ecstatic because he says that will ensure that they get it right, and put and end to Apple once and for all! He agrees with the 2008-2009 timeframe.
The funny part is that he does not do e-mail on his personal laptop due to security problems, and cannot believe that I do on-line banking on my I-Book with OSX.
He is proud that next month he is going to sit down and reconfigure his Dell with XP laptop so he can once again go on a network with other gamers in our company.
These are people with degrees in computer engineering in the company, who assume in their daily lives that it is normal to NOT be able to connect to other computers, and they literally believe that I am lying about being able to network using my I-Book.
No, I will not say who the company is.
Kenh:
You can’t do that!
At least give us a cryptic crossword clue so we can have a stab at working out the company to which you’re referring.
I too am glad they are waiting several years for a new release of Windows…Ive been getting tired of yearly upgrades…
mike…
this news sounds like it upsets you … one must wonder why ?
perhaps you should become a mac user yourself, so you can save money on asprin and laugh at at the idiots who are waiting patiently to spend their hard earned money on yet another OS that certainly will crumble under the weight of all those security patches its going to need..
This just goes to show that the existence of Microsoft is the biggest piece of blind dumb luck to occur in the past 100 years. It’s like a giant dung ball rolling down a never ending hill, just keeps getting bigger and bigger. It boggles the mind how such a large group of people can be so completely dependant on something that is actually hurting them or at the very least holding them back.
Who are all these thousands brilliant programmers? What are they doing all day, playing Doom3 no doult. Someday someone will do a study of the biggest scam that history has ever known.
A few months ago, there was a story going around concerning the hacking of the Micro$oft web site.. The hackers, evidently, did such a good job .. Billy Gates was forced to co-locate the entire domain…
The hilarious part of the story was who ended up hosting it…. Akami…
Correct me if Im wrong here, but doesnt Akami use Linux and OSX servers ?
Talk about having some egg on the face
WinFS sortof is like Pictures, applications, movies, etc folders in the sidebar of the finder, right?
RE: can’t do that.
Well, ok, a few minor clues.
It is in the US, you would recognize the company names of some of the people we build for, but would not recognize the products themselves because many of them are for servers of things like ATM machines, or medical equipment, and I think very few would recognize our company name.
You would not see our stuff in desktop or laptop computers.
I know that just makes it more mysterious, but it’s not that unusual because subcontractors are a way of life these days.
I only made the original comment as a way of commenting on computer culture, and how so often those who work in the nuts and bolts part of it are sometimes a bunch of knotheads, just like in everything else in life.
WinFS sortof is like Pictures, applications, movies, etc folders in the sidebar of the finder, right?
The Windows File System
[Is Microsoft’s stripped-down ‘Longhorn’ worth waiting for?]
Probably not.
But, that’s irrelevant. Will it be wait for? You know it will.