Microsoft Offers Peek Into Newest Windows

Yahoo! News Technology ^ | 5/18/03 | Reed Stevenson - Reuters

[NormsRevenge]

SEATTLE (Reuters) -

Upgraded to Windows XP (news - web sites) yet? If not, you might miss your chance, because Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq:MSFT - news)is already working on the newest version of its operating system, code-named Longhorn, due for release in 2005.

Although Windows XP, the most current version of Windows, is just 20 months old, the world's largest software maker is betting that users will be ready to upgrade within the next couple of years as personal computers become more powerful, faster and affordable.

Details about the new operating system remain scant, but Microsoft has already started soliciting feedback from hardware makers and software developers on key features of Longhorn, such as its graphics and security capabilities.

The challenge for Microsoft is to ensure that Windows, the software that runs on nearly all of the world's personal computers, will show enough of an improvement to convince users to upgrade, while fending off growing competition from Linux (news - web sites), the free operating system.

Although Microsoft previewed some of Longhorn's features at a hardware engineering conference last week, the software giant is holding its cards close to the chest.

"Microsoft is pleased with the progress to date on the development of the next version of Windows, code-named Longhorn," said Greg Sullivan, lead product manager for Windows, but added that "it's important to realize the product is still under development and evolving each day. As a result, it's too early to talk about specifics for the final version."

Still, technophiles eager to get their hands on this nascent version of Windows have already circulated "alpha," or early working versions, on the Internet and are buzzing over some of Longhorn's newest features.

NEW PLUMBING

Much of Longhorn's most significant improvements will be in its basic design and inner workings.

Microsoft is also developing a new security technology, code-named Palladium, which is widely expected to be a part of Longhorn.

Palladium will allow Microsoft to secure information passing through software and, more significantly, hardware.

For example, Microsoft could encrypt keyboard strokes passing through the cable connecting the keyboard and the PC, making it difficult to find out a secret password or eavesdrop on sensitive information.

Since Palladium also makes it easier for Microsoft to track users and locate illegal copies of its software, some consumer groups and Microsoft's competitors have voiced alarm over giving the Redmond, Washington-based software maker too much control.

A new file system allowing the operating system to store data more efficiently will also be a core part of Longhorn's design, Microsoft has said.

That system, based on database technology, is aimed at facilitating storage of different types of files, which are automatically categorized, and also making it easier to manage files without using folders.

The new file system will also make it easier to store and retrieve data in different locations, such as on a server or another computer in a different location.

NEW LOOK

The most dramatic change for most users, however, will be in the design of the Windows desktop.

Recent demonstrations by Microsoft hint the software maker is aiming to make Windows behave more like, well, Windows.

The individual windows in Longhorn will be semi-translucent, making it possible to discern the contents of one window hidden behind another.

The trick is in the degree of opacity -- completely transparent windows atop one another would turn information into a jumble of letters and graphics, while more opaque ones might defeat their own purpose.

The operating system's windows would ripple when moved and shrink or expand their content automatically, effects that require a significant amount of graphics power, the kind usually reserved for high-action 3D games.

What this means is that the new software will most likely require new hardware or upgrades to work well. PC Makers welcome the opportunity to make new sales, but users are becoming increasingly reluctant to buy new hardware to go along with software every few years.

"Longhorn sort of continues Microsoft's insistence and belief that the desktop personal computer is best served by a fully high-powered device," said Dwight Davis, a strategist at Summit Strategies.

[Terpfen]

I'm running XP Pro; the thing still dies on me once in a while, and plenty of programs crash for no reason whatsoever.

[Centurion2000]

bump

[liberalnot]

i got xp the day it came out, oct. 17, 2001, if i remember correctly, because office depot gave me $20.00, $79.00 for the upgrade.

i've had lots of problems, but each time xp asks permission to report them to bill gates and i say yes, and later a patch arrives.

where's freeper bush2000? he's a microsoft employee.

[Centurion2000]

They DID pay the US government. With backdoors into the OS for gov snooping.

That's why you have a firewall. If you're that worried about the gov't getting to it then I would also suggest putting a bulk eraser on top of your computer. (Don't turn it on though .. unless you really really mean it.)

[George W. Bush]

The Xbox with XBox Live is truly something. Excellent console with a superb gaming network to support it.

And with HDTV, you can get high resolution output (1080i, 480p). Naturally, this will really mature with XBox2/PSX3. But I hear it's quite good right now.

The people poking fun at XBox fail to recognize that the console games are optimized heavily in assembly. The most brilliant coders make big bucks to do it. The ports to PC just don't have the manpower and testing regimen standing behind them.

I suggest you hack your XBox. Xecuter2 Pro is very flexible. Add a 120GB hard drive for...well, you know. You can even run Linux with it. And XBMP (XBox Media Player) is very very hot right now. Everybody is going nuts with it. I'm streaming DivX and every video format you can think of over to it, viewing picture albums, playing MP3's, etc. Using a simple XNS streaming protocol. Or you can do the SMB thing, run the native FTP server and clients, etc. And we're on the verge of using hacked Xboxen to stream television from hacked Tivos (& DTivos) to any XBox on the home network. Very close to that. I'm sure you realize that all this work is going to end up inside Linux projects because Linux folks are the real brains behind all this. Xbox hacking is, as I'm sure you realize, a direct attack on Micro$oft. It costs them $100 just to sell us one. And then we ruin their subsidy recovery marketing plan. They lost half a billion in just the last six months. Very satisfying for M$ haters like me.

I'm also watching WINE development on Linux closely. It can already run M$ Office fine but the real conversion will be when it can run more games. However, there are only a few games left on my list of favorite games and then I can go Linux and not look back. I'll stick with Office 97 because they haven't actually added in useful features for average users to Office since 97 (exception: Outlook which I don't run at home).

At the moment, I'm waiting to finish the last 50 meg chunk of the OldSchool release of the Amiga archive. It is a set of 2,905 games for the Amiga that run with the UAEX emulator on XBox. The PSX 1 emulator just came out this week and, even in early form, is running about 70% of the PSX games with full built-in gamesharking, etc. Naturally, all the other emulators (MAME, SNES, Dreamcast, N64) are all being ported or already done and their full archives (thousands of classic games) are being released for use on XBox as well.

Oh, yes, Mr. Bill, sell me another XBox. Just try to make money off me, you techno con-artist. The beautiful irony here is that the attempt of M$ to enter the XBox and Home Media markets actually hands their technology straight to the Linux (and Apple) folk.

[George W. Bush]

You and the others discussing which generation of OS works best with which machines are kind of missing the point.

In general, you should run the OS that was current when the machine was new or the version of Windows that came out within the 12-18 months before or six months after the machine came on the market.

It's because of chipset/motherboard/CPU issues. Windows, like any other piece of software, is generally tuned to provide best performance on the average machines available at the time of release. Because that's who the likely customers are and those are the machines that OEMs will install new Microsoft OSes on.

It's pretty straightforward if you think about it. No mystery here. Different generations of Linux have similar issues. Whether it's Microsoft or Linux, you have to have a set of average target machines to aim at. And you tune it for the majority of users. A machine too old or too new just isn't going to work as well, all other things being equal.

[MarkL]

When I was in charge of corporate desktops, first thing I would do when getting a new piece of hardware was get a good installation of Win2k Pro, burn an image of it, and use that image for loading the rest of the hardware just like it. I'm betting that most corporate IT departments do the same thing and wipe the preloaded OS, no matter what it is.

They do exactly that, in fact that's a service that my company offers to our clients: They build an image, and then we reimage the systems. The problem is with getting drivers that work reliably with the newer hardware, but old OS. One municipal government is just now upgrading to Windows2000 on their workstations (they were running WinNT 4 Workstation), and it worked well. However, the drivers for the new hardware running NT just aren't available. A great example is Dell with their Inspiron and Latitude laptops. The Inspiron is a "home or SOHO" laptop, while the latitude is made more for business. The Inspriron is pretty much the same hardware, but you can't get Windows2000 on it, only ME or XP Home (although I believe that you can get XP Pro). However, in the Latitude, you can get Win2K. In my case, I needed Windows98 as part of a multiboot system (I also needed a DVD, which at the time wasn't available on the Latitude), and had to find generic drivers to make it work. I was lucky.

Mark

[eno_]

You are correct: Anyone who doubts that 80% of the games market is consoles should go to www.ea.com and read their annual report. They break our revenue by platform. PS2 rocks, everything else is a poor second place.

[eno_]

For me the issue is this: I don't mind content protection on special purpose devices. But keep that Palladium crap outta my PC! Palladium allows code you can't control or inspect to run on your PC. It is the Devil himself come to make sure you are never secure in your documents and effects. XBOX? Whatever! It's just an entertainment product.

[xrp]

Regarding content protection:

I wish they'd label those CDs, DVDs, etc that are copy protected so I wouldn't buy them. I don't copy to distribute, I copy to make backups for my own protection if a CD or DVD cracks. I hate that copy protection crap. Bring back the glory days of VHS!!!

[George W. Bush]

Nothing is uncopyable. It merely requires adequate techniques and basic equipment.

[Myrddin]

"ME" was the only Windows release that ever ran all the toys in my ATI All-In-Wonder Pro 128. ATI hasn't made the grade on support that video card for Windows 2000. "ME" never ran in a stable fashion on that machine, so I put Window 2000 on it. No problems since then.

[Clinging Bitterly]

>> Windows completely fulfilled the 'must-have' computer feature set with windows 98SE, and made it rock stable with Win2000. Sorry, no more upgrade money from me.

Yup.
I had been using 98SE since it first came out. Until just recently, it did everything I needed, but as I find myself storing more data, I wanted the security and reliability of NTFS, and I figured 2KPro would be the way to go.

Couldn't get it though, so I went with XP Pro. Had some difficulty getting it to install with some of my "legacy" hardware, but I got those kinks ironed out, and I must say it performs better than expected on a 450 MHz. K6-2 with 192 MB RAM. It really does boot and start programs faster than 98SE, just like it says on the box, and I'm not sure 2KPro would have. I was concerned about the "product activation", but I learned about, well, let's say a patch, that made that unnecessary. There are other things integrated in the shell that are somewhat offensive, but they are being configured out as they are discovered. I guess this is a half hearted retraction of things I've heard around and repeated on other threads. Out of the box, it does a lot of the evil things we have heard, but it's fixable.

But now I need to do a new Linux install to be able to reliably handle the NTFS volume. Needed to dump Mandrake anyhow. Don't know what flavor I'll wind up with, but it won't be that one.

Dave in Eugene

[jammer]

Yeah, sure. You don't really believe the point of that post, do you?

[error99]

The article starts with this:
"...the world's largest software maker is betting that users will be ready to upgrade within the next couple of years as personal computers become more powerful, faster and affordable..."
- -
And ends with this:
"...What this means is that the new software will most likely require new hardware or upgrades to work well. PC Makers welcome the opportunity to make new sales, but users are becoming increasingly reluctant to buy new hardware to go along with software every few years..."
- - -
So which is it?
Do changes in hardware cause the need for new software?
Or do changes in software cause the need for new hardware?
Whichever it is, for users to have to upgrade computers (hardware AND software) every few years sure does get expensive.

[delapaz]

yeah I hear ya, but win2k driver support should be out there for a while yet, hardware vendors supported win95 for a *long* time. And its pretty much up to the hardware vendors to support the win2k OS, not Microsoft. So be careful when you buy hardware, as you already know.

looking a bit ahead, I'm guessing that there might be a market out there for a reputable hardware vendor who puts together cutting edge PC's that support win2k, the last MS-OS without activation. I'm also hoping that by the time win2k is no longer viable, that I can replace it with Linux, and have all my must have apps like Quicken, games, etc.

[flamefront]

And now MS to circle in for the kill after previously SCO threatened all linux distros -

SCO to License Unix to Microsoft

[AFreeBird]

If you guys don't like the privacy thing or something just don't upgrade.

No problem. Just like I didn't upgrade to XP, I won't be upgrading to whatever they're gonna end up calling Longhorn.

W2K is the last M$ O$ I'll ever use.

[Michael Barnes]

re#54

Thanks for the ping...

[Michael Barnes]

Although I am not a KDE user (Give me that of the god's, E), KDE has the potential of killing MS. Only one thing lacks right now for that to take place, a SOLID office package. I know there is STAR and Open Office, but with that goes alot of training and lost productivity. The "desktop", MS will lose out on in the short run when it comes to bizz. The *nix world is simly way too configurable; many times at a price that entails hardware and expertise only..Scrap SW lic.

Server end, MS benchmarks simply aren't there. I can load up Linux or Sol 9 on a Proliant and watch it shread MS 2000/NT on the exact same server. MS' time might not be here yet, but it is fast approaching. 2005 will mark what companies are willing to tolerate (everyday lemming home users won't skip a beat). Just like the Internet, will MS miss it, or jump on the bandwagon at the last moment?