Comments on: The long march to Longhorn

In Microsoft's quest for better search, says CNET News.com's Mike Ricciuti, there's been no end to the potholes and detours.

[Earl Benser]

Ambitious?????

If I remember right, Apple's OS X and Sherlock both can search
files by title, content, date, application and other parameters,
separately or in combination right now. No waiting.

Looks like ol' Bill is behind the power curve again.

It just might be that the basic concept of Windows is so
burdened with legacy requirements that MS really has no chance
to develop Longhorn as more than a PR release.

[alek_nedic]

the power curve

http://www.analogstereo.com/vacuum/miele_s185.htm

never cared of mentioning ReiserFS

Many features of WinFS can be found in ReiserFS an open source file system. The author didn't even mention it in his article.

check out http://www.namesys.com/whitepaper.html

[M. T. MacPhee]

A new display system called Avalon

Let me get this straight. In two years (and counting - these
folks have already proven beyond any doubt that they have no
idea about time) Windows will have a new display system.

Meanwhile, back on OS X, we have already enjoyed a new display
system for two years. Its called Quartz, which is Display PDF.
Ever noticed how a PDF document can be enlarged and enlarged,
and is always crisp, with no jaggies? Same thing on the Mac
screen. Of course, anything you see on the screen can be a PDF
document, too. Very handy. Saves huge amounts of time.

Oh, yeah. We have already had an update to Quartz: Quartz
Extreme. Does the word FAST have any meaning for you? This is
available right now, today, on any Mac you buy. No waiting two
more years.

Of course, you also get the advanced Mac OS X searching utility,
Exposé, and the Mac Finder to get you to your files. It is not
Spotlight which we will get next year (sounds like Windows may
never get anything like this), but the combo sure beats Windows
solutions. More speed.

Why not add a Mac to your computing arsenal today?

Warning: Macs are habit forming.

Mike

[mortis9]

you can't really be that stupid. can you?

did you forgot what mac need just a few years ago. they basically tossed out all of their old customers and said: "if you want your system to work, buy our new os and new hard ware or you're S.O.L." If microsoft had the luxury of ignoring legacy software this product would be to market next week. Writing new, innovative, robust, software meant to take advantage of brand new technology, isn't at all easy to have complete compatibility with software and hardware nearly a decade old. Microsoft is akin to a man trying to fix the whole building, apple just threw out one chair and replaced it with a new one. The two are in no way comparable. "mac is addicting" - sure, for those who don't mind buying everything new, from a tiny cache of software/hardware.

[M. T. MacPhee]

New features in Longhorn

You know, I followed the 'new features' link in this story and the
the story it linked to, and I never did find any "New Features". I
found lots of promises. I found lots of "You have no idea how
good this will be because we haven't shared yet".

No features, though.

May I suggest that if you want innovation, you chose the
company that is famous for it: Apple.

For information on smoothly adding a Mac to your computing
arsenal, go here: < http://www.apple.com/switch/ >.

Warning: Macs are habit forming.

Mike

Read the fine print.

The new features for Longhorn are those that Microsoft has not
cut from OS design. Because Longhorn has never made it to
commercial release everything new includes nothing that has
been promised. So, in reality, anything that appears in Lonhorn
will be "new" by default even if 95% of what was promised in the
early 1990's is conspicuously missing.

[rbethell]

There is a difference between DisplayPDF and Avalon...

DisplayPDF uses PDF as its render engine (which advances it a little, but not far, beyond Display PostScript which has been around for years.)

Avalon uses an SGML-like XML based markup language. The ability to do user interfaces such as XAML in a markup language, rather than in code, is a significant advance for developers. For the end user? Perhaps not so big a deal. For developers? The importance cannot be understated.

[Aphelion]

Core graphics for developers

The ability of OSX to natively view and accurately scale PDF files
faster than Acrobat, not to mention the ability to create PDF files
from any application as an option in the print dialog box makes
OSX a superior solution for sharing documents and images.

As far as the underlying graphics engine, Apple's Quartz broke
new ground by harnessing the GPU to draw the interface, while
providing advanced capabilities such as transparency.

OSX "Tiger" (due out a full year and a half ahead of Longhorn)
will introduce "Core Video" to join "Core Audio" as a tool to allow
programmers and developers to take advantage of OSX's
powerful graphics engine.

Big difference

The singular difference between Avalon and Apple's Quatrz/PDF
capabilities is that Apple has a working product while Avalon
does not exist as a commercial product.

[Thomas, David]

Bottom-line

Are you developing for it n now?
Do you have a product now?
Are you making money for it now?
Do you have a business model now?

---
It's a promise that does not exist. Smoke and mirrors

PDF, Avalon, or...

I'd rather put my money on LookingGlass if I
want to see something really interesting. I find
myself more keenly watching whats going on with
the LG project than anything else thats desktop
related. But, thats just me.

64-bit processing

Apple promises Tiger will be a fully functional 64-bit OS with
32-bit compatibility in 2005. When will Microsoft deliver its 64-
bit OS?

MS Stock means what?

Seriously, considering MS's abject failure with Longhorn and
Internet Explorer, and ri produce a functional 64-bit OS what
gives you the confidence that MS stock will maintain its value?

How do you anticipate the developers of Unix and Linux OS's to
change in the next 5 years, especially considerig 64-bit
development is already being promoted by non-MS companies?

Unless MS can produce more than promises, excuses, and delays
MS will be considered an archaic rather than progessive
company. That will not help maintain stock value.

[David Arbogast]

Meat Moose or Meat Head?

This Meat Moose character is really out of touch. Blind anti-Microsoft comments suggesting that Apple is the future... ROFLMAO... Hey... catch up, Meat Moose... the world is not flying past Windows users, the world is made up of Windows users.

Hmmm.

Another unintelligent Microsoft apologist, a person who resorts
to insults because they are incapable of forming an objective,
cogent argument and are unable to answer direct questions.

[Dimitris Tsichles]

some MS !!! history

Every one who likes Windows and MS must HIDE and be assamed of theirselves.
BECAUSE Mac Apple Linux Unix JAVA Novell etc are the Good guys. BUT :

In 80's there were Amigas - Ataris - Singlair QL - CUBE (!!! display postcript if you know). Black boxes with specific capabilities and hardware.

Then there was GOOD MS with VERY BAD first generation windows.

Every two or three years people had to upgrade or buy a new PC , To be able to run bad OS like win95 - 98 - me 2000 and so. Spend money to have Direct X graphics faster CPU's / GPU's, better Sound Cards more RAM HD etc..

BUT: who drove this "NEED for SPEED" race. BAD Microsoft, which OS created needs and hardware vendors followed.

So there were two history road paths:
1. Stay in black boxes (which Amiga is my 80's love), and donnot PAY the upgrade to 2004 path

2. Pay the way (as eventually happened) and Have MAC users with ATI video cards laugh at MS's TODAY GDI interface, LINUX guys huppy with the mainframe desktops capable of running their OS, and SUN with JAVA having Plenty of processing power to run their p-code (!!!) compiled object oriented crap.

Without 80s-90s evolution today's world (IT and non IT) be completely different (better or worst).

Before looking at your favorite MAC OS transparencies and blame MS, think that some people payed for this evolution and these are not the mere 5% or 7% of MAC Users !!!.

Today we have GOOD WINDOWS from a BAD COMPANY. In Greece we say: "One hand helps the other and both clean the face"

Good luck with LINUXMACJAVANOVELLWINDOWS story and sorry for spell mistakes.

Windows is technological obsolescence

If MS put as much effort into OS development as marketing of
Windows then Longhorn would not be nearly 10 years late, XP
could be euthanized, Internet Explorer dismissed, and MS would
have the braggin' rights to the most used and advanced OS.

The fact remains that MS has issued only promises and press
releases, and excuses and obfuscation will not sustain any
organization. People want products that work, are delivered on
time, and are affordable. MS is continually falling behind the
technological curve and every day each Windows user is slipping
into technological obsolescence.

OS X and Linux will be the foundation for the next generation of
OS's. MS is only left to offer Windows users Service Packs for
bloated and outmoded programming. So, if you prefer
anachronism to progression continue to use Windows.

mircosoft

mircosoft or mob boss
what kind of company know that there product is not right and yet still sell it?
they use us the end user to get most if not all the bugs out so bill gates, wont have to pay xtra over time to get rid of them.
wake up world go linux show bill gates who gets millions of bucks a day what we want! not what he tells us we need. when we make a stand we will all be more happy. slow pc's high components the list is never ending.
when will he bring out a OS that wont have any bugs, mind you there will allways be bugs in any os these days. software is like water one drop leads to a river of faulty software, as long as these people keep pushing there gear on us end users, it will never end. stand up for the right to free software and better speeds on the internet. long live cable and fiber optic cause we sure in hell need it.

[alek_nedic]

slow pc's high components

http://www.analogstereo.com/vacuum/miele_s183.htm