Paul Thurrott has updated his “Road to Longhorn” article with new, never seen before screenshots of Longhorn. Some interesting new approaches to usability and UI can be seen there.
Longhorn Roadmap Update: New Unseen-Before Screenshots
About The Author
Eugenia Loli
Ex-programmer, ex-editor in chief at OSNews.com, now a visual artist/filmmaker.
Follow me on Twitter @EugeniaLoli
114 Comments
2005-03-23 8:41 am
2005-03-23 8:41 am
2005-03-23 8:54 am
2005-03-23 8:59 am
2005-03-23 9:19 am
2005-03-23 9:31 am
2005-03-23 10:22 am
2005-03-23 10:32 am
Anonymous
Its good to see Longhorn will run appliations as a less priviledged user account. And will ask for Administrator password when needed. Good catch up.
Still Linux will improve. 
Go Linux go.
2005-03-23 10:49 am
2005-03-23 10:59 am
2005-03-23 11:12 am
2005-03-23 12:05 pm
2005-03-23 1:22 pm
2005-03-23 1:39 pm
2005-03-23 1:52 pm
2005-03-23 2:38 pm
2005-03-23 3:15 pm
2005-03-23 3:33 pm
2005-03-23 4:16 pm
2005-03-23 4:26 pm
2005-03-23 4:34 pm
2005-03-23 4:35 pm
2005-03-23 4:54 pm
2005-03-23 4:56 pm
2005-03-23 5:00 pm
The forward and backward icons in screenshots resemble bit with the ones from Crystal SVG icon theme
Then again: In how many original ways can you make a shiny sphere with an arrow in it?
And by “new approach”, do you mean “exactly like OS X”? The new Explorer looks like a mix between the Jaguar and Panther finders (right down to the location of the search box). The search future looks exactly like Spotlight:
http://www.winsupersite.com/images/showcase/lh_fast_search_demo_01….
http://images.apple.com/macosx/tiger/images/searchspotlight_2004062…
The only difference is that in Tiger the “what to find” text box is in a consistent place between the search tool and the file browser and looks the same in both apps, while in Longhorn its in different places and looks different. And stacks remind me an awful lot of:
http://www.macrumors.com/pages/2003/04/20030413220229.shtml
Sure, but ther are only so many ways to do things right. Apple had a few ideas, they worked fine, now the rest are trying to do good too. That doesn’t mean that they do the copying in a bad manner, they just try to do what works.
This is exactly like the Tiger build I’m currently using. If only they could buy Apple…
it looks like it wastes even more real estate than MOSX.
Did anyone spot the hardware requirements for Longhorn?
“Desktop CPU: 3 GHz Intel Pentium 4 processor with HyperThreading Technology 530 (or higher) or 3 GHz Intel Xeon processor with 2 MB L2 cache, or AMD Athlon 64, Sempron, or Opteron 100, 200, or 800 processor, single or dual-core versions.”
That’s obscene.
I love the screenshot of the dead (sorry non-responding) application…not sure how “it might start responding if you wait” is supposed to be more informative than before. Good to see they are allowing for that legendary system stability to continue…
http://www.winsupersite.com/images/showcase/lh_fast_search_demo_01….
beagle have the same layout only a bit ugly
As one of the resident WinFS fanboys, I will agree with you Rayiner, this level of search functionality that will apparently ship in Longhorn does appear to be exactly like Spotlight.
Makes one wonder why WinFS will take so much longer.
😉
When Apple came out with their “Remond, Start Your Photocopiers” and such banners at last years WWDC ( http://www.macminute.com/2004/06/27/tigerbanners/ ), I thought that was largely hyperbole. But as I’ve been reading as much as I possibly can about Tiger (without being a developer under NDA), I’ve begun to think Apple wasn’t kidding. So far, I see little in Longhorn that won’t be in Tiger — in fact, in some ways Longhorn is catching up to Panther. This doesn’t bode well for Microsoft. They need to find a way to convince people not to buy a Mac for the cool/innovation factor or a Linux PC for the cost/convenience/freedom factor. The fact that it’s taking a small-ish company like Apple less time to implement incredibly complicated and sophisticated features than a huge zillion-dollar company like Microsoft is really staggering. When 10.5 comes out in, say, 2006 or 2007, where will Microsoft be? Still working on SP1 or SP2 of Longhorn?
Jared
does anyone else think it looks ugly?.. :S
seeing so many mac posts I’m sure I’ll get stomped for saying that XD
Yep, the posts here are right. It’s pretty slick, but they’re too late.
MacOS is clearly still the best OS available. With VPC and some tweaking you can run Mac, Windows and Linux software, and it looks fantastic.
Just a shame you have to mortgage your house to buy decent Mac hardware …
that’s a shame … oh well
we’ll see the final product
And Linux and OSX are looking better and better all of the time.
I have to say with all of the hype surrounding Longhorn and its interface and whatnots I was expecting something as revolutionary as the OSX interface or just at least something different then a few minor graphical changes.
Then again .net isnt turning out to be as great as microsoft was marketing it to be either. So it shouldnt really be all that suprising.
Hehehe … for a moment I thought it was a snapshot from the Beagle project (in look and feel). Count 1 for Linux — seems to have overtaken Windows in some areas.
I think the screens look really cool…. I also think that there is no way in hell they could have come up with this on their own, had OS X not been there to show them the way. Certainly, the glassy Aqua look isn’t the only way to go… why did Microsoft choose to dupe that look? Because, they haven’t an original bone in their body….. do the decent thing MS, give thanks / credit to Apple for teaching you another new trick. They’re going to run with this as if it were their idea, their R&D… god it must be frustrating to be on the OS X team and see your hard work ripped off….
I think that’s a pretty sensible UI actually, worth copying for Linux (metacity, really). It has nothing to do with Windows, any app can deadlock if it’s buggy.
We find all this in KDE some time next month.
So how does google’s desktop compare to this?
You’re right. I remember a poster displayed by apple during their MacOS X launch saying “Redmond, start your copiers!”. Looks like Microsoft heard it alright 😉
Thats pretty sad. Honestly, what do they spend it on?
http://searchexchange.techtarget.com/originalContent/0,289142,sid43…
Hopefully there will be away to turn back on the Win32 classic interface, yes ?
Been using that for about 10 years and like it better than anything I’ve seen on any platform, including this one.
Also, what’s up with the pointless debates about who copied who? Who gives a shit? If you like OSX better, then use it. Every time new screenshots are posted (ESPECIALLY anything MS related), you’ll get at least 5 nimrods going “Hey, that looks just like xyz ….”
Is anyone else just sick of the glass effect?
It’s not specific to the article, but this goddamn style seems to be EVERYWHERE right now.
I dunno, maybe it’s just me.
Whoa creep our IPs are pretty close. Where are you posting from?
Its about hype. Microsoft has been hyping this thing as some great generation incredible platform with revolutionary features all over the place. Just like they did with .net.
And then when we start to see it it shows the hype for what it really is, hype.
Smae thing happened with .net. Well i used .net for a few months and realized it was just java with a few broken things in java fixed and alot that was working really really well in java broken beyond repair.
Text writer is not responding it might start responding if you wait.
Gosh, is that an uber operating system $7bi/year?
LOL!
I’m not saying that it’s a bad thing for Microsoft to copy Apple. I’m trying to point out how comical it is that the “revolutionary”, “next-generation” OS from the “industry leader” is shaping up to be rather underwhelming. Longhorn does not seem underwhelming in and of itself, but in comparison. When Tiger is released later this year, it will have been 1.5 years since the last major OS X release. When Longhorn is released in late 2006, it will have been 5 years since the last major Windows release. If Longhorn doesn’t blow away Tiger, it will be enormously underwhelming.
Microsoft has 4x the yearly revenue of Apple. It has 5x the number of employees, and 12x the R&D budget. If they just copy “designs known to work well”, that’s a fairly impressive display of wasted resources.
So AMD’s Sempron will cut it but not Intel’s celeron? *snicker*
Actually, a lot of Longhorn was conceived way back when Windows 95 was being developed.
Yes, but we’re not talking about those pieces. Avalon, Indigo, WinFS, etc, are not copies of OS X features, they are copies of much older designs. However, how long do you think this particular search dialog has been in development? Since 2001? Unlikely. Note that the resemblances I pointed out, aside from the search dialog, date back to older OS X versions and even NeXTStep. Piles, for example, have been patented by Apple for a decade now.
Yes, I hear a lot of you saying “this is copied from XYZ”. But the point is, that for MS it doesn’t metter If they copy something.
They don’t try to win an inovation award, because they don’t need to inovate if they wanna sell they new system. The massive user base and the PC sellers will do this for them. For MS is it enough to catch up the actual development and trends.
So they don’t need to do inovation like Apple, which only way to survive and to extend their user base is by providing an ongoing inovation stream.
MS don’t need to extend their user base, they just try to hold it. And the point is that “Mr. Habit” helps MS a lot 😉
Remember people, these are prototypes and the true Aero UI won’t be revealed until September at PDC ’05.
Is anyone else just sick of the glass effect?
It’s going to get worse. Just wait until the Linux crowd get their Cairo stuff in order, Then everything will be transparant, shadowed and shiny.
http://www.kde-look.org/content/preview.php?preview=1&id=15998&file…
Glass… pretty
Anyone notice the screenshot with the “Stacks” in it? It allows you to conveniently organize files/data. Isn’t this a feature Apple patented a while back? They called it “piles”, however. To my knowledge, Apple never implemented this feature into their current OS and I don’t remember reading about it for inclusion into Tiger. Can anyone else elaborate? I wonder if Apple has any legal recourse and if they’ll take Billyboy to court over it.
[i]Then again .net isnt turning out to be as great as microsoft was marketing it to be either. So it shouldnt really be all that suprising.[/quote]
Seems to be a lot of development going on with .net for something that isn’t turning out great.
It rocks. Hard. Sorry.
Who cares who copied who. Linux copies from windows. Windows copies from Apple. Apple copies from BeOS.They all copy each other.
“Hopefully there will be away to turn back on the Win32 classic interface, yes ?
Been using that for about 10 years and like it better than anything I’ve seen on any platform, including this one.”
Everything I have read mentions the ability to use the classic interface.
“Also, what’s up with the pointless debates about who copied who? Who gives a shit? If you like OSX better, then use it. Every time new screenshots are posted (ESPECIALLY anything MS related), you’ll get at least 5 nimrods going “Hey, that looks just like xyz ….””
Anytime there is an article about Micorosft, let the bitching begin.
It looks like there are some features in Longohorn that will also be in Tiger the difference is that Tiger ships in a few weeks.
By the time Longhorn comes out, MacOSX 10.5 will most likely ALREADY have shipped and Apple will be already hot on the development of 10.6.
You can already sort things out like that in XP, it’s nothing special, just sorting based on file extentsion, and it will even have the thing that says “documents” “emails” etc…
What WinFS does is allow you to add extra info to your files so you can put something in it to make sure you can find it later.
Have they implemented a global menubar like Mac OSx now? Or are there just no menubars, period?
I thought longhorn was going to have 3-d features built into it.
… but that interface looks nice
I hope the speed and functionality of this OS is good too
Call me a sucker but the more I read about Longhorn and the more screenshots I see makes me want it even more. I know this is unusual for anybody, but I just want something new and different. As for the copying, I could care less. I just want it to be an easy user interface no matter what the platform.
“One thing users should be aware of is that Longhorn will include a new kernel and will thus not offer the same level of compatibility with legacy 16-bit and 32-bit code that Windows XP does today. For business users, Microsoft believes that Virtual PC 2007 will help broaden corporations’ compatibility options. But the company will also ship an early release of the Longhorn Compatibility Toolkit in 2005 to get users ready for the changes.”
In know alot has been said about the interface in this discussion, but this is the first time I’ve read that backwards compatibility will suffer to a great degree… current MS-entrenched businesses won’t like that at all. VPC 2007 as a solution???
Looks like they renamed their rtf program again.
Write -> Wordpad … and now Text Writer.
I really like the way the fonts look in the screenshot and the use of gradients and transparency. Personally I think Microsoft always comes up with the most crisp, functional UIs. Yes, I prefer XPs GUI to OS Xs. It’s not as pretty, but I find it’s easier to get my work done in XP (and GNOME) than OS X and it’s poorly implemented “dock.” GNOME really needs to get the default font issue worked out as well as the default theme. Having a crisp default font makes all the difference in the overall look of the desktop theme. Take note!
I like the UI translucency. BTW people chill out, Microsoft showed that “Finder” screenshot like 2 years ago if I’m not mistaken. Most of this stuff is nothing new. In fact the ‘synchronize’ window is almost the same as the one from 2003. If I’m not mistaken there was a news a few days ago saying Microsoft will not reveal the “final” (3D) UI until September this year. If you go through Thurrott’s Longhorn alpha gallery you can MS changing the theme like 10 times. I’m quite confident they want to keep the ‘Aero surprise’ as late as possible before shipping. None of this will probably be it (although I hope they keep the translucency
)
BTW, I have to mention this. This -> http://www.kde-look.org/content/preview.php?preview=1&id=15998&file… looks slick
I thought longhorn was going to have 3-d features built into it.
It will, just no one has seen the 3D Aero interface yet.
It looks like there are some features in Longohorn that will also be in Tiger the difference is that Tiger ships in a few weeks.
By the time Longhorn comes out, MacOSX 10.5 will most likely ALREADY have shipped and Apple will be already hot on the development of 10.6.
That’s all fine and well but what does that have to do with my x86 PC? You know, maybe you should take a look at AmigaOS 4 and see what “a bunch” of people are doing and compare it to Apple.
In know alot has been said about the interface in this discussion, but this is the first time I’ve read that backwards compatibility will suffer to a great degree… current MS-entrenched businesses won’t like that at all. VPC 2007 as a solution???
That is nonsene, Win32 as well as Win16 (to some degree) is fully suported under Longhorn, but it will run wrapped in .NET as everything else.
And surprised no one saw the ‘Text Writer’ and ‘Paintbrush’ applications running. Apparently this is a sign Microsoft will ship (from what it looks) a decent word processor. At least it looks like a stripped down Word. I can see mspaint hasn’t been upgraded (yet)
Besides calc, I think that’s the only application without modifications since Win3.11.
I can’t really see clear from those screenshots, but it _looks_ like Longhorn will display icons as actual snapshot of the files. At least I can see 2 different variations of icons that look like snapshots from the file.
Anyway, we’ll see some more hopefully at this year’s HEC.
Fonts look nice because of Microsoft’s Clear Type. You can tweak this thing anyway you like to get impressice results. The first link let’s you tweak it through IE (required) and the second is the download link (more features):
http://www.microsoft.com/typography/cleartype/tuner/1.htm
http://www.microsoft.com/typography/ClearTypePowerToy.mspx
Did I mention how great my fonts look?
Sorry to say that Longhorn seems to be a significant step for pc users only. But saying that Longhorn will be a all new breakthrough operating system is a joke.
If you notice the comments in winsupersite, we seee:
– “As with Windows XP SP2, Longhorn will provide strong security warnings and guidance when it detects errant actions. However, Longhorn’s warning notifications can occur because of local code as well, and not just because of Internet-based communications, as in XP SP2. The idea is that users will feel safe, and they will be able to undo any action, further strengthening the security aura.”
The screen shot show a window requiring the user to enter his password before intsalling an app. Well nice, but MacOsX does this, and has been doing it for a while.
-“Longhorn will include technology, presumably a new form of the Encrypting File System (EFS), that helps prevent data exposure from lost or stolen laptops. You’ll be able to forward event logs to a central location.”
That’s FileVault in panther.
-The serach engine is very similar to Spotlight when it comes to display the results. The navigation feature is very similar to the today’s Finder, with the search box in the right corner, actions on the top, etc…However the search seems to be of course less integrated in the os, as Spotlight, i guess we will have to wait for WinFS.
-The stack feature is just a copy of the Piles that Apple has described in their patent (but still not in use in osx). Guess some lowers at apple will have some work.
-“Alpha Longhorn builds have hinted at what’s to come: A universal synchronization manager called SyncManager will manage the connections between software and hardware.” The text below the screenshot mentions : “SyncManager will support smartphones, MP3 players, PDAs, notebook computers, and other devices.”
MacOsX has powerful sync technologies with devices since iSync has bee introduced. The interface of the Longhorn SyncManager is very similar to the iSync one.
The winsuper site comment on the sync capabilities of Longhorn is: “Longhorn’s ability to synchronize data between PCs and various portable devices will be unsurpassed.”
What’s a joke, this Thurrott.
Thanks for the links. The font itself also looks nice too, I’m guessing it’s Arial, though it could be something else altogether. Oh yeah, and as always Microsoft’s icons look very crisp and professional, but then again they have billions of dollars to employ top of the line graphic artists. GNOME still has “legacy” icons littered throughout from themes long dead. These definitely need to be replaced for GNOME to take it to the next level. Not knocking the GNOME UI artists, but even the current GNOME icon theme looks dated and undoubedtly will have to be redone sometime in the near future to compete on looks with OS X and soon Longhorn. Facts are facts, giddyup!
What is it, exactly, that Windows Longhorn is doing that requires these ridiculously high system requirements?
I don’t think I’ve ever been less interested in a Microsoft operating system. Had they left all of their new technologies in it, it might have been mildly interesting. As it is, it’s just Windows XP with a different theme, and a few interface tweaks.
As much as I want to comment, it would be wise not reach any conclusions until the betas start shipping. I must say I am looking forward to it. I would move to a Mac for the ir OS but hardware is weak. So I stay with XP but looks like my dedication to it will start paying off slowly. Though I do agree, with that much budget, M$ sure has not been very creative. And I really hope they get rid of backward compatibility. I think backward compatibility is like extra luggage that no one really needs. If people need backwards compatibility then dual boot.
Seeing as how the Aero UI will not debut until PDC, this is probably not what it will look like in the end, heck what is available in PDC probably will not be what it is like in the end.
That being said, the actual UI of it (not it’s window decor, which isn’t bad either) is very nice.
Can anyone tell me what is under the hood of this fine OS.
Is it a continuation of win32 api? is it based on NT kernel?
The only thing that has been dropped is WinFS, and it will be available as a beta when Longhorn comes out, I do not see what you are crying about.
I swear, you are typing to this page via a time warp to 1999 or something.
It OS X’s, but it does look pretty nice for being Microsoft..
??? Sorry don’t get it.
I’m sorry, but the ONLY thing that makes this look like OSX is how the search is set up.
How else is it like OSX? Because it’s shiney?
Is any computer UI that is shiney like OSX?
Give me a break.
Then, Microsoft will utilize a disclosure approach it calls “rolling thunder,” which will build up to a crescendo by the Longhorn launch.
Ugh. Thats enough marketing BS to make me puke.
In Longhorn, Microsoft will introduce the new least privileged user account (LUA), which is basically a secure code compartment in which most application code will typically run.
The problem I see with this is compatibility. Applications have taken for granted that they complete control over the system for years. Its just the windows culture. I’m sure they’ve thought of it though, I just can’t figure out a way to support these legacy apps without compromising security.
Longhorn will support a new updating model called hot patching, through which Microsoft will be able to apply updates to any non-kernel code, including drivers, without requiring a reboot.
WOW! What an amazing feature!
Seriously, I’m surprised they can even announce this as a feature with a straight face. It’s a godawful embarrassment that even Windows XP is so incredibly shoddy in that department.
The UI is fugly, but that’s subjective, not to mention not final.
In Longhorn, applications will launch and load files 15 percent faster than with Windows XP.
What a load of BS. What applications? What files? Where is this magical improvement coming from?
On the topic of fast searching.. I’m jaded on that topic. Tried Google Desktop Search and was not impressed. Yes this will have better integration but I don’t forsee much use for it. The times I actually have no clue where my file is is so rare to be insignificant. Not worth running some resource sucking indexing service in any case.
I’d go for a natural language search or at least an intelligent query parser. So I can type things like:
emails from john last week
messages about snowboarding
c code created in the last 2 days
Microsoft believes that Fast Search will reduce the time users spend searching for files on their PC by 80 percent.
So instead of 5 minutes/month I spend 1 minute. Fantastic. There goes my stretching break.
But here is what galls me the most about Longhorn:
Looking at those hardware requirements, it is going to be a ridiculous hog. 3GHz P4?? Are you guys kidding? I would be personally offended at such a blatant waste of system resources. Last time I checked, my OS was primarily there to run applications, which means I want to maximize the processing power available to those applications!
Performance is important! OS X gets faster and faster, KDE gets faster and faster every release. Longhorn looks like it will be ridiculously bloated (yes, I am using the correct definition of the term).
I have a relatively modest machine. Athlon XP 1600+ w/ 512MB RAM. It is plenty fast in Linux and Windows XP.
So now they’re telling me that I wouldn’t be able to acceptably run Longhorn on that? And not just barely, it looks like the recommended requirements are systems about 3 times the speed.
The wasteful way they handle computing resources is shameful. I suppose the hardware companies can’t wait for Longhorn.
One of the genuinely cool features in Longhorn is a new iteration of the Cleartype technology and a new set of system fonts. Microsoft auditioned a bunch of type designers and finally commissioned six font families for what it calls the “Cleartype Collection.”
Just to make the point clear. I would have no problems with their hardware requirements if they were offering something revolutionary.
Since they are not, I would expect it to run just as fast as OS X on comparable hardware.
I somehow doubt that’s going to happen, seeing as how the little iBook at work (500MHz, 384MB RAM) runs OS X 10.3.
Yes its not a speed demon, but it is still usable. Internet/email/music/movies work just fine on it.
I’m not really an OS X fan (the interface gets in my way) but Apple is doing the right thing with respect to performance.
There is a reason Apple customers are so fanatically loyal to the company. They don’t get fucked every release.
Indeed. Microsoft have always made excellent fonts. The only fonts I use on Linux are the Microsoft ones.
Is this the first step to a legacy free OS?
Build up a good list of apps that use .net with the Longhorn release, then totally remove support for legacy apps with the next OS release (I shudder to think when that will be).
The huge amount of (legacy) apps is what keeps Windows the dominant OS, and is the same thing that makes advancing the OS so difficult (speaking as a non-developer here).
What do you people think?
You have to give Microsoft credit for their fonts. I, too, only use Microsoft fonts….mostly Tahoma. Remember those screenshots that I mailed to you. Even with auto-hint on and with microsoft fonts, the font rendering isn’t as good under X – especially at small fonts.
Isn’t there something called “curning” that is involved here?
Anyway, the screenshots are just that “screenshots”.
You and I know that Longhorn will most likely be fairly decent tech when it comes out. Microsoft doesn’t suffer from a lack of very smart engineers. Avalon and DX9-compatible vid cards should make some impressive eye-candy.
I was thinking the same thing. If I remember correctly Apple has a patent on ‘Piles’. Personally stacks is a better name than piles.
The problem I see with this is compatibility. Applications have taken for granted that they complete control over the system for years. Its just the windows culture. I’m sure they’ve thought of it though, I just can’t figure out a way to support these legacy apps without compromising security.
This has been done in mainframes for years and I don’t know why Microsoft has not done it itself. Basically what you do is create a fake computer, registry, system directory etc and the old app runs in that. This way the old apps can work in the old way accessing things just as they did in the past, while the rest of the system remains secure from tampering. I believe the process is called virtualization or partitioning. Probably the tricky part is getting the application to interact with others in the same system.
I hope that the system specs required to run Longhorn that were mentioned in the article are just mere speculations!!! Cause that is effing ridiculous!
Good job, It almost look like my Mac!
A little more effort and you’ll have a great OS.
Microsoft should congratulate Apple for all it good work.
Without Apple where would we be!
Are those piles I see? Arent they patented by Apple?http://www.winsupersite.com/images/showcase/lh_stacks_demo_01.jpg
First off, if I were Bill Gates and the Microsoft crowd, I’d be pretty embarrassed. This is just sad.
Well, I use the Mac, so I’ll get all of these advances in a few weeks, with more security, less bugs, and the joy which comes from knowing that I spend my money with innovative companies with some scruples.
But, back to Microsoft, if their goal is simply money, this is great work. Just when the switcher movement will really get momentum, MSFT will have a knock-off product which will keep people in the fold.
Business is business. It’s just sad that a company with so much money and so much marketshare can’t come up with their own ideas. 80,000 employes and nothing is unique.
I wonder what the knockoff of Dashboard will be called? Steering wheel?
Sad and pathetic. Sad and pathetic.
1. Too much information on finder screens.
2. Looks like this search system is geared to Microsoft formatted documents. I imagine they will have an SDK to take care of this metadata unless they actually start utilizing the same metadata that .exe files have under properties.
3. Nothing new. At all. As many have already noted…
4. The facelift will not be worth the cost. One should expect more from Microsoft now that OpenSource is actually doing equivalent things. Seems they’re playing catch up and putting forth no other effort.
What’s interesting is this:
Sure they can copy the look, but not the engineering genius.
Tiger will run on computers 7+ years old. Some of the visual candy will not be available, but the OS will still work.
Microsoft and the joke that is their engineering requires a machine that is cutting edge today. Maybe.
I guess Microsoft still knows nothing but how to write inefficient spaghetti code. And we all know the security implications.
As another poster said, it’s just sad. I don’t feel angry, or anti-microsoft like some posters appear to be. It’s just such a waste of so many resources–people and money–to be locked in a culture which lacks innovation and vision.
It’s bad for the country. It’s bad for the industry.
New features nobody asked for which increasingly rely on even greater resources keeps everybody in a vicious hardware/software circle.It’s outragious a software vendor can stay so long in the headlines without actually delivering anything (worthwile) in the meantime.All we actually see are postponed release shedules.So many mouths to feed that depend on MS makes journalism not very trustworthy these days.About time someone breaks the circle and starts something that will change everything for the coming decades.I hope Novell will realize and their goals and may the force with anyone actually innovating this boring OS world we live in today.
Wow. It’s amazing how many of you can’t read. It says 3Ghz is the hardware RECOMMENDATION, not REQUIREMENT. What a shame that you need to have this pointed out to you. I guess you’re just blinded by your MS hatred?
So instead of 5 minutes/month I spend 1 minute. Fantastic. There goes my stretching break.
Oh..so 4 less minutes is not a good thing? I don’t get this.
Performance is important! OS X gets faster and faster, KDE gets faster and faster every release. Longhorn looks like it will be ridiculously bloated (yes, I am using the correct definition of the term).
It LOOKS bloated? Nice. Have you forgotten that OS X needs 512mb to run smoothly?
I have a relatively modest machine. Athlon XP 1600+ w/ 512MB RAM. It is plenty fast in Linux and Windows XP.
So now they’re telling me that I wouldn’t be able to acceptably run Longhorn on that? And not just barely, it looks like the recommended requirements are systems about 3 times the speed.
Maybe if you actually learned to read, you’d find out that Longhorn will run on that fine. You just won’t be able to run the full Aero interface, but instead either use Tier 1 (classic) or Tier 2 (Aero light).
WOW! What an amazing feature!
Seriously, I’m surprised they can even announce this as a feature with a straight face. It’s a godawful embarrassment that even Windows XP is so incredibly shoddy in that department.
I just don’t get it. Microsoft announces something that is a big improvement, and all you can do is find a way to bitch about it.
Since they are not, I would expect it to run just as fast as OS X on comparable hardware.
So you’ve used the final version of longhorn?
I’m not really an OS X fan (the interface gets in my way) but Apple is doing the right thing with respect to performance.
o.O
There is a reason Apple customers are so fanatically loyal to the company. They don’t get fucked every release.
You mean making users pay for each minor version (OSX10.1, OSX10.2, OSX10.3…) is not fucking the user? Microsoft releases Service Packs for FREE.
Good job, It almost look like my Mac!
A little more effort and you’ll have a great OS.
What screen shots are you looking at? Looks nothing like OSX to me.
Are those piles I see? Arent they patented by Apple?