DescentBB

Have any of you heard anything about the design of "Longhorn?" What is it going to be like?

It's going to be like.. not.. out.. till.. 2006!

All XML baby

2005

http://www.winsupersite.com/reviews/longhorn_4051.asp
note its still in alpha form, but i have gotten to play with the 4015 build and its quite nice a little crash happy but thats understandable

what longhorn will have?

-TCPA/NGSCB implementation, thats sure now.
http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~rja14/tcpa-faq.html

-build in redundant spybots, this time integrated in system-process

-very strong DRM (digital rights managment for digital media like pictures, text, movies, sounds.)

-stability even lower than win xp (but hey, the icons will be more colorfull and animated, every single icon will be a 500 frames wmv-video)

-capability to run mac and linux viruses too

-a billion autostart processes made so complex that no one really nows what they do anymore. ( and every single one will access i-net every 15 seconds)

-every single it-standard on this planet in a special m$-version, not compatible to the standard of course

-internet explorer 7.0 with sp1 sp2 sp3 sp4 sp5 sp6 sp7 and sp8 included, the rest of the leaks will be closed a year later.

-ah and full documentation + datasheets of every single feature and interface used by ms-dos 2.0 docu for dos 3.0 interfaces will come next year.

-multi-user enviroment is canceld in longhorn, anyone is using the admin account anyway, so no need for this.

well j/k, what longhorn really will bring, who knows? i doubt that m$ learned anything from old mistakes. they need some massive losses on free? markets before they will move.

From what I've heard, Windows Longhorn will bring with it a few things:

- Trusted Computing, a.k.a. Palladium, Microsoft's anticipated means of policing hardware and forcing it to conform to its specifications. A lingering question is to what extent Microsoft will take this. Somehow, I feel it's possible that it might get whittled away to the level of "signed drivers" in Windows XP, but one never knows.

- Another taskbar. As far as I know, this one lives on the left or right side of the GUI, in addition to the standard one at the bottom of the GUI. The sidebar is supposed to handle ancillary things like IMs, stocks, a clock, etc. Can't say I'd really need something like that, although Gaim practically lives on my desktop's side region.

- Office formats whose reversal is a crime. In an effort to stamp out other suites like OpenOffice, Microsoft is aiming to make their new Word and Excel formats incompatible with previous Windows and also use strong digital right protection to prevent reverse engineering by law. This could be a big deal, which is why it's important suite like OpenOffice start to catch on now rather than later.

I'll be getting the indonesian version of Longhorn: No DRM or Palladium in it!

My question to you would be this: why bother upgrading at all? I mean, if all the crap you're saying about Longhorn turns out to be true, you can count this user out. Right now, XP (or 98, 2000, etc. ) works just fine. Do we really need a new version of Windows? It just seems like people in the software/gaming industry are always looking ahead to the "next big thing." One example would be Sony's PlayStation 3. It's only been a few years since PS2 came out, and they're already making plans for a new system that doesn't sound backward compatible. It sounds like Microsoft's leaning this way too. I'd just like to say to all the world this one thing: why change what isn't broken? XP works fine; we don't need another Microsoft mistake, I mean OS.

(No, I'm not a Luddite; I just don't like change. )

why release new systems? because: the spice, err, $$$ must flow.

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Arial">quote:</font><HR><font face="Arial" size="3">Originally posted by Mobius:
I'll be getting the indonesian version of Longhorn: No DRM or Palladium in it! </font><HR></BLOCKQUOTE>



pix by MD

Longhorn is very powerfull and its amazing how much better it is onley reasion its crash happy is cause ITS STILL ALPHA people dont relize that thangs dont work well in thoes versions so they start bashing it.

im looking towards haveing it and also have BlackComb around

Might be the European version - I can't recall. But basically, the only saps who get the DRM version of Longhorn will be you sad Americans.

So Stuff that up your $#% and ^%$&ing weep. HA!

Sure you can avaoid upgrading, but when 64 bit computing rolls around it's either that or the special XP(unless you really want to rebell and go Linux ). And you know it'll be preloaded on every OEM PC after it's launch, allowing the mindless public to quickly make it the standard.

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Arial">quote:</font><HR><font face="Arial" size="3">Originally posted by Mobius:
<b> Might be the European version - I can't recall. But basically, the only saps who get the DRM version of Longhorn will be you sad Americans.

So Stuff that up your $#% and ^%$&ing weep. HA!</b></font><HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Don't be surprised they start introducing region controls on Longhorn compatible hardware.

DigiJo, I hate you. ^_^ You scared me.

psych

This sounds kool, but all I want is a system that can kick windows' butt while I'm busy playing D3. ^_^

Upgrading is less of a choice than an expectation. The grip Microsoft has on the computer manufacturers will invariably mean all new computers will be shipped with Longhorn preloaded. That's the power of a market share monopoly. However, it is also predicated on the notion that people will buy new computers.

Personally, Windows XP works just fine for everything I want to do. I actually had no problems with Windows 98, sans the crashing, and XP addressed that problem rather nicely. Given the choice, I wouldn't upgrade to Longhorn because it has nothing important to offer me and a lot that I don't want (DRM, for example).

Not to mention the fact that I'm almost positive that most, if not all, older software/games (such as D1, D2, and possibly even D3) will not work on the new OS. That's enough of a reason for me not to upgrade.

(Plus, I know nothing about 64-bit processors, Linux, DRM, or computers in general )

Lets see:

* I have XP which handles software optimized on the NT core and use it as my primary os for its overall stability.

* I have 98 which gives me another OS to fall back on in the same computer in case XP craps out and vice-versa as well as a platform to play all of my old games.

Given the 2, I will not upgrade because I already have an NT based OS and I dont need a flashy computer software toy AKA Winblows because I use a computer to run my programs and do productive stuff, not to play around with the see-through explorer windows and gawk at the 32-bit color icons. All I ask is an OS that use minimal resources that run my program in a stable environment.

I mean really, is that too much to ask? Did I ever ask for all of the flashy s**T microsoft is bragging about with Aero? I dont give a S**t. Give me an option to boot into CMD instead of explorer and have me sucessfully launch programs from there and mayby, just mayby ill consider it. Screw all the rest.

ANd you know whats funny? The dumb sheep that is the general public pay for it anyway and make MS rich. Take out the dumb sheep and you will start to see significant cuts in MS profits.

ANd if any one of you starts a debate on how MS has benefited the computing world and how I should STFU, you might as well give up because I can refut and back up anything you throw at me. So dont even try it aint worth the effort!

You realize you contradicted yourself there Top? If you wanted NT stability without the flashiness, you should be using 2000.

hahahahaha u got him there

Top Wop's unhelpful ranting aside, this is what I know about Longhorn:
[*] will feature a new window drawing paradigm, called "Avalon"... they're really changing how things work this time. i.e. for the first time ever, windows and controls will be vector-based, not drawn as chunks of bitmaps. This means that windows will automatically support the new high-resolution and dpi displays as they come out[*] the new vector-based UI engine uses polygons and textures... so not only will it make use of the 3D hardware in your machine, it will rely on it. You'll be able to rotate, flip, alpha-blend, grow and shrink your windows on demand, without pixellation, and without (hopefully) a CPU hit[*] wmv and mpeg should follow those same rules as well[*] there's a new add-on to the file system, which is based on SQL. I haven't heard all the details about this yet, but they're apparently pushing away the concept of a "file", and instead promoting the idea of data that all applications share. Sounds pie-in-the-sky to me, but I'm mostly ignorant about this so far

There's a lot more going on than this, and yeah, the digital rights management is going to suck.

Re W2K vs XP: You know you can turn of the teletubby theme in XP.

As for the rest, I admit, I got owned, but the point im trying to make is that I want an OS, not a toy.

With what MehYam is saying it actually sounds promising, so ill wait and see. But most of my argument still stands.

Update: there's some decent marketing speak from Microsoft on their "WinFS" file system. It doesn't replace NTFS, but rather sits on top of it. I think it's a database based on SQL, and the basic idea is that Microsoft is urging people away from the notion of files, and more towards the notion of data items.

It's hard to understand exactly what this means yet, but a simple fact drove the point home: for most users, it's easier to find something on the web than it is to find something on the hard disk. It's not just a matter of finding the file you're looking for, but finding information about the file, running a query, etc. A hierarchical file system breaks down because you're only allowed to categorize the file one way - by the directory it sits in. So for instance, I might keep all my mp3's in directories sorted by artist, then by album - but what if I wanted to see a list of all songs (or photos, or anything) from the 90's? Or what if I wanted to find all references to the word "tax" in my Excel spreadsheets? It's my naive understanding that WinFS will help with those kinds of tasks.

EDIT: this example is assuming, of course, that Longhorn lets you rip mp3's.