Microsoft Corp.’s “Longhorn” server will be a far more configurable system than past Windows releases, allowing customers to change the server’s setup on the fly by selecting which components to load.
Microsoft Teaches Longhorn New Configuration Tricks
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Well, substitute ‘services’ for ‘components’ in the statemtent “change the server’s setup on the fly by selecting which components to load”. Really, is this anything new? Or just a clever rebranding of services to the more snazzy buzzy word ‘components’?
Wow, what a major contribution to the computing world. I wonder why anyone else never thought of it. oh, wait a minute. EVERYONE else has. Welcome to the 21st Century MS.
Why is each and every newssite these days throwing out this “<enter your Microsoft product here> will have this and that feature, and will be great per se” stuff without being paid by them?
Is it called news to play the megaphone of marketing departments?
I’m not interested in advertisement, I want things that *really* happen, not marketing crap.
Why is MS going on about their server stuff when it seems that half the stuff they promised would be in the next desktop OS release won’t make it in? Haven’t they learned anything by now? Better to keep your mouth shut I think until the stuff is damn-near complete, especially if you have the track record of MS.
Reminds me of the old joke where a bunch of women are talking and one of them says: “My husband works for Microsoft, and all he does is sit on the side of the bed and tell me how good it’s going to be when I finally do get it.”
For Longhorn, they literally can’t keep their mouth shut. It would hurt the developers too much (which is Microsoft’s most prized possession).
Also, there has been ONE major companent that has been removed from the Longhorn desktop release, which is WinFS… that’s IT, and that will be in beta form when the desktop is released, and will be released with server.
This configurability is EXACTLY what EVERYONE has been asking for, and now you bash them for doing exaclty what you (probably every person who reads this) asked them to do? Do me a favor and and grow up.
this is a joke right… bout time
Yes, this is very well known marketing trick – to awake anticipation for a new product, and when it eventually appears on the market everybody will be interested to try it at least out from curiosity.
What is really interesting, as mentioned above, is such so to say “news” actually paid by marketing dep. of MS?
Reinventing the wheels since 1985 (c) M$
Another important feature was cut as well.
Monad. It’s the codename for the new Microsoft Shell. Basically, it was meant to be a true scripting language and command interpreter to kill CMD and Visual Basic Script (thank GOD). It was also going to enable SECURE scripting of Managed Code dotNet objects with authentication and goodness, and deliver standardised APIs to unmanaged code that wants to export capabilities to it. I hear it would even be possible to run MSH as the ONLY interface to Windows, saving resources consumed by Windows Explorer.
MS basically is competing with AppleScript, Ruby (on rails, even), Python and perl all at once by pushing DEEP dotNet integration. It would have been C# for applications, C/C++ for those who need the speed, VB.Net for those who must have it, and Monad for glue. For Microsoft, Monad/MSH would have been a major selling point to get people off unix-alikes, and if they well and truly integrated it with their software it would make Longhorn that much more powerful (and dangerous if they botch the security model again).
Mind you, pulling off Monad requires ripping DEEP into the Windows codebase to remove the need for the GUI and make sure everything can talk to MSH. I’m not surprised they weren’t able to deliver by Longhorn.
The points many of Longhorn’s detractors make can be summarised thus: WinFS, dotNet 2.x, Indigo, and Avalon are all coming to XPsp2 and Server2k3. Monad will come either when it works, or when a significant number of developers are using the NEW new APIs. I’m guessing Blackcombe. This is because MS needs developers working on these technologies NOW, users and applications becoming dependent on them NOW, and forcing them as de facto standards NOW. Longhorn will likely bring NOTHING new to the table that we’re not already getting, while all the REAL goodies are off in the post Longhorn future. Oh, and don’t bring up Aero — it is so not worth $300+ for another upgrade.
Longhorn SERVER, on the other hand, may be interesting.
–JM
The parts that are going to XPSP2 will be very basic in nature, most of the advanced parts of Indigo/Avalon etc will be only in Longhorn and up. MS backporting the basic functionality of these to XPSP2/2003 was done at the request of developers who wanted to have their apps reach a larger install base the first time around.
Like CPUGuy said, WinFS is the only MAJOR feature MS has taken out, but it will be ready in beta when the client version of longhorn ships and will be final when the server version is done.
As far as Monad goes, they talked about it a bit but I don’t remember if they ever officially said it would be in longhorn, though they have now said it will be in Exchange 12 which is coming soon. I think we have missunderstood the wording of MS when it comes to Monad, they said it would take 3-5 years to have it fully rolled out, but I think this means more along the lines of functionality then anything else. They can release it with exchange now, then add it to other programs like SQL Server support, then move it on to work with everything else they have little by little. I still expect Monad to be in longhorn in some form or another.
Mary Jo Folley (Follidiot as I have come to know her since her days at ZDNet) said that Mondad is being pulled, but there has been no official word.
On top of that, I actually beta test MSH and it works pretty well as is right now. I really don’t see this being pulled, but I guess we will find out soon enough.
At present time Monad is going to be in Exchange 12 and as part of the the Winfx SDK. (This will run on Windows XP, Windows 2003 and Longhorn) At present it is not scheduled to be in Longhorn however that could easly change.