Microsoft is on track to release the first full test version of the next major Windows release by the end of June, a Microsoft executive told CNET News.com on Monday. Also, Microsoft this week will reaffirm its promise to have Visual Studio 2005 Beta 2 finished by the end of the quarter and its intent to have “Avalon” and “Indigo” subsystems available for Windows XP and Server 2003 in the near future.
Microsoft: Longhorn beta will arrive by June
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Eugenia Loli
Ex-programmer, ex-editor in chief at OSNews.com, now a visual artist/filmmaker.
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Win 2000 beta 1 was released September 1997, Final was December 1999.
Win XP beta 1 was released October 2000, final was October 2001.
source: activewin.com
I expect Longhorn sometime around the end of 2006/beginning of 2007.
I expect Longhorn sometime around the end of 2006/beginning of 2007.
That’s alright, nobody is in a big hurry
I know that a lot of Linux users get excited about new releases. I don’t know about all Windows users, but for me, a new Windows release is nothing special. Except for Win2k (which was probably the best version of Windows ever), about all they do is continue to dumb it down and make it slower. Longhorn doesn’t seem like it will be an exception.
I agree with Darius’s comments on this topic. I myself am going to stick with XP and then again I hear that some of the subsystems are going to be available for XP users to use so that the migration to Longhorn would be easier. The only reason I would even consider moving to Longhorn is if it is a significant jump in performance playing games or running any sort of apps. Other than that I am going to be an XP user till at least they stop supporting XP. And I think based on precedent it will be a while cause I hear they are still supporting Windows 98 till sometime this year.
how is a beta release in june 2005 on schedule? i thought it was supposed to be gold by then (according to their original time lines). wouldn’t that make everything later then that, off schedule?
and which features are being sacrificed to meet the deadline this time?
Yeah, but isn’t Longhorn supposed to be a major rewrite to improve security?
I guess everytime they make some grandios announcement, this automatically resets the schedule. Since they have dumped WinFS and have split out avalon and indingo, I’m not sure what is left in Longhorn that raises the slightest bit of interest to me…Can’t see the business reason for the change and will stick with XP until we ditch the fat client completely, and I am waiting for Tiger OS X @home.
Nobody seems to thrilled.
Yeah, but isn’t Longhorn supposed to be a major rewrite to improve security?
Security in 2k/XP for those ‘in the know’ isn’t a problem at all. I have submitted an article about this, which Eugenia says will be up sometime this week.
As for the average Lemming, as long as they keep doing what crackers tell them to do in order to get naked pics of J-Lo, security is never going to get much better, regardless of the OS they’re using.
Are you surprised? That just means that much more work to play catch up with Windows.
“Yeah, but isn’t Longhorn supposed to be a major rewrite to improve security?”
All this time and people still don’t understand what longhorn is. They are not going to rewrite the security part, they are rewriting everything except the kernel. All of it, the entire win32 api is going to be deprecated and replaced with winfx (think .net)
Deprecation != rewrite
Deprecation only means that Microsoft will tell its developers to stop targeting the Win32 api and begin targeting the WinFX api.
In other words, the Win32 api is not going to be replaced. The Win32 api will ship with Longhorn. WinFX/.NET framework will be built atop/alongside the Win32 api, as the .NET framework is built today. If Microsoft replaced the Win32 api with WinFX then no Win32 applications (e.g. Excel) would run on Longhorn, and Longhorn would be a complete market failure.
Also, the Windows code base is enormous. Microsoft is not going to rewrite “everything except the kernel” for Longhorn. Not even Microsoft has the engineering resources to tackle such a huge undertaking. Besides, there wouldn’t be much reason for Microsoft to even attempt such a thing. What reason is there to believe that a completely re-written Windows codebase would be any better than the existing code base?
It will get here when it gets here.
I don’t see what the big fuss is about. Longhorn isn’t going to make my inbox suddenly spectacular, its not going to make my instant messages more incredible, and it certainly isn’t going to improve my horrid response time in Half-Life 2.
Some people make it seem like everyday that Longhorn isn’t out they are writhing in agony.
is it just me or the so called longhorn is just yet another windows xp.
with winfs delayed or dropped, avalon and indigo are also goin to implement on xp/2003 through some windows update…
so wats so great about longhorn anyway…. avalon? indigo maybe…
You’re just arguing semantics, writing a new api or rewriting an existing api is the same.
No. Rewriting implies the old one is gone in favor of the new. This is simply not the case. There’s no arguing of semantics. They aren’t rewriting everything, plain and simple. If you equate it to anything, think extensions, or even Carbon+Cocoa = Win32+.NET/WinFX/Whatever.
Win 2000 beta 1 was released September 1998, not 1997. And I am not sure it was even a beta, but rather an alpha or a preview.
Ever since win2k each and every revision of windows is slower, dumber, and less interesting than the previous.
That’s why windows people are not enthusiast of new releases.
On the other end, new releases of *nix systems, desktops and frameworks tend to work better and often faster than the previous ones. Are you surprised that people rejoice when there is a new release?
I want to see what they do with the explorer/shell with the new UI. I hope its as pretty as OSX (or better).
The old preview releases were pretty uninteresting in that regard, but I hope that isn’t how the final is going to be.
I think it will be out sooner, rather than later, in response to the Street wondering what Microsoft is going to do to spur revenue over the next year, next 2 years (assuming that the 2007 prediction holds).
A new version of Office just won’t cut it. Maybe Microsoft is relying on Xbox 2 as a stopgap, but they need a big win on the OS front for long term stock price support, and sooner, rather than later.
but I wonder how many Microsoft employees are working 80 hours a week right now only to find that everyone went to Mac OS X and GNOME by the time Longhorn actually ships.
You wish.
“Security in 2k/XP for those ‘in the know’ isn’t a problem at all.”
And for those not in the know? They are simply doomed to have the computers shut down by Sasser, etc.? You can blame the common user all you want, but people can’t afford to do without computers and the internet anymore. If MS can’t give them software they can use, then someone else will.
You know, I’ve never really thought about it, but the folks here are right: the enthusiasm level for a new Windows is much, much lower.
I remember sitting on the edge of my seat for Windows 95. I loved it until I tried to get it working on my laptop, and then I entered Microsoft hell. But short that window of 4 hours, the anticipation was great and learning it was a joy also.
2000 was the same way.
Now, I look at XP and Longhorn, and I yawn. No real innovation from a UI perspective…just making it more Disney toy like for the lowest common denominator.
But the problem is Microsoft is not really good at doing that type of UI. Apple is. So Longhorn, like XP, will be the worst of both worlds. Still too hard for the average user to configure and customize, but too dumbed down and annoying for the pros.
Either way, I don’t think I am upgrading to Longhorn until I have absolutely no choice. It’s not anything against MS, I just don’t care about Longhorn or anything it is offering.
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It’s kinda sad OS updates and hardware updates for the desktop have gotten to this point of lackluster enthusiasm. The commoditization of the PC desktop really sucks some times.
Hell, at this rate, if Microsoft keeps cutting functionality out of Longhorn, it’ll be LIVE in June.
Is Longhorn going to be a free upgrade? Most OS upgrades which are mostly bug fixes and security patches are free. I certainly hope so.
“Is Longhorn going to be a free upgrade?”
hahaha I wish I could show that question to the Microsoft of a few years ago in response to their enthusiastic pronouncements of how much better and different Longhord would be. Bet they never imagined that in a few years users would think Longhorn was just an upgrade..
Anyway, I really doubt it will be free. Even with all the features they’ve cut out, I’m sure they still think of it (probably correctly) as a new OS.
That question made me laugh too.
Dvorak is calling Longhorn Windows XP SP3. He may not be too far off the mark.
Just a rumor, but I heard a lot of the delay has come from an unexplained USB malloc() bug. USB webcams and mice are particularly susceptible. Hopefully, they pull it off in time. Can’t wait for that Avalon, baby!
Chuck-