More than late?
Everyone else has commented on the Longhorn decisions - but here's something I'm wondering about. MS has announced that the file system (WinFS) will be missing from Longhorn, and will "ship later". Hmm. I don't think you ship a file system as a set of dynamic updates to the OS - I mean seriously - outside of a major upgrade, how many people are going to take the time to install it? I'd say that it's entirely possible that WinFS will never ship. Why? Look at the timelines:
XP SP 2 - shipping now
Longhorn - shipping 2006
Longhorn is still two years out (at least - I wouldn't discount the possibility of further delays). MS isn't going to want to ship a disruptive upgrade too soon after Longhorn either - which puts WinFS out until something like 2008-2009 (at the earliest). Now, what's the liklihood that it'll survive that long without some MS development group deciding that they have something better between now and then? I'd say pretty slim.
Comments
Longhorn shortened
[David Buck] August 30, 2004 9:14:46.072
If they're having trouble squeezing the features into the release schedule, shouldn't they be calling the release "Shoehorn?"
How disruptive?
[Ian Bicking] August 30, 2004 12:39:18.116
I kind of get the impression WinFS isn't that disruptive. Well, maybe in the longer term. But it seems like it's more a service, something a programmer can use, something built on top of the filesystem, but not really an upgrade to the filesystem itself.
Re: More than late?
[ Rich Demers] August 30, 2004 14:18:57.555
Comment on More than late? by Rich Demers
I'd like to know why M$ is at all talking about "file systems" in the Longhorn time frame. Shouldn't it be obvious by now that Object-Orientation is a better approach to managing data and the programs that affect it? A file is just one kind of object, with one just one set of behaviors. Shouldn't the OS be able to make other kinds of objects (each with its own behaviors) persistent without having to force fit them into files?
In case anyone thinks I'm dreaming about a "black sky" data management system -- one where you're flights of fancy are so high the sky is black -- let me point out that such a system has been in use for 25 years. It has evolved from the System/38 to the AS/400 to the iSeries. My best guess is that IBM keeps changing its name to keep it a deep dark secret -- even from itself, apparently.
Active Object System Kernel
[Isaac Gouy] August 30, 2004 16:23:27.065
why M$ is at all talking about "file systems"...
Starting from a cleaner slate could be interesting... the Active Object System Kernel