Microsoft - What happened to Longhorn concept???
Filed Under (Microsoft, Technology) by Rajan Zachariah on 22-11-2007
Tagged Under : Computers, Longhorn, Longhorn concept, Microsoft, Technology, Vista, Windows
I remember seeing an awesomely kool looking video of Longhorn(now Vista) back in 2002-2003. It had features and GUI enough to push back Apple way behind the current game. For those who are not getting even a slightest idea check the video below.
[ youtube=http://youtube.com/w/?v=Tf29haATORQ]
So where are the features showcased during PDC-2003? Why Microsoft had to settle for something less and name it Vista? And why the features that resembles Mac? Why, Microsoft Why? What happened to Longhorn concept?Well, I’m still searching for the answer. Few points that come to my mind are:
- Business Strategy.
- People not ready for it.
- Microsoft is still working on it.
- More features = More resources
- Not enough usage.
It could be Microsoft’s business strategy to first commercialize Vista, a rip-off of the longhorn concept, get the jargons Aero, Yukon, Avalon etc. out, and then release the main product. It could be like releasing Windows 2000 first and then XP(which is built over 2000).
This could be partially true. If you remember Tablet-PC, which was popularized by Microsoft way back in 1993. There wasn’t much appreciation from the general public and Microsoft had to wait for almost a decade for it to get commercialize.
The initial promise of Microsoft of a new File System, called WinFS was pulled off from Vista due to several reasons. Microsoft has to throughly test the whole new OS after integrating all the features. WinFS wouldn’t have finished by the deadline set for Vista’s release.
Well, I don’t need to explain much. Vista itself needs around 2Gb to work smoothly(512Mb minimum, but will minimum work for us?). A high level of UI presentation would mean a lot more that 4GB of RAM that the current 32-bit architecture won’t support.(Ahh i remember my old days when i begged my dad for 8Mb of RAM 
).
Yep, seriously, this could also be a reason. These features may look awesome to some, but for some it would be a time waster. There are a lot of people who change their start menu to the way old Win95/98/2k style and don’t prefer the xp/vista style. They feel comfortable in their old style zone. Pumping in all the frills may not be the update that they are looking for.
Well, all’s well that end’s well, i believe that Microsoft is not dropping the Longhorn concept, and would bring it back in the upcoming Windows7/Vienna.
What you say?
Thats an interesting take on the whole diluting of the end product and naming it vista. I still firmly believe that waiting five years then to receive vista was a bit of a let down, but using windows vista ultimate 64 bit and Vista business on my laptop, I simply could not imagine going back to xp, its so antiquated by comparison. I definitely share you consensus though that vista has ended up being a transitionary OS, particulary on the graphical front. I hope 7 supports touch, and a true vertex user interface because the days of bitmap so already be long gone, naturally winfs is going to be amazing, and many other touted features that were going to be in longhorn. I just cant wait for direct x 11 where games be able to bypass the direct x api and make direct calls to the graphics shaders. That will give some impressive room in terms of speed with no directx api in the middle.
I totally agree with your point even i feel now that XP is obsolete and also i do believe that MS is doing something gr8 with Win7 kernel. If you have seen minwin, a stripped version of vista(or vienna) kernal, its quite fast.
As Win7 is supposed to not support legacy hardware, a lot of security and timing issues would be resolved.
Quite excited for the next OS now itself.