An early test version of the next major release of Microsoft Windows has been leaked onto the Net, offering a glimpse of the company’s plans for the new software. WinSuperSite features a preview article with many juicy screenshots and information.
Longhorn Alpha Preview 2: Build 4008
About The Author
Eugenia Loli
Ex-programmer, ex-editor in chief at OSNews.com, now a visual artist/filmmaker.
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If I end up with Longhorn on my computer for whatever reason, I can easily see myself installing Object Desktop; stripping off the default interface and going for a minimalist WindowBlind skin and only having ObjectDock (like OS X’s dock) on my screen…just like my current WinXP install.
Those screenshots show too much fluff and bloat that are only there for the “gee whiz” factor.
Funny how these are “leaked” to pro-windows sites like WinSuperSite.
The smart money says that people are actively switching to desktop *nix like MacOSX or Linux and Microsoft is shipping demoware to these professional yeah-sayers to stem the tide.
With all the hackers/crackers on sites like Slashdot, and other newsgroups, etc. you’d think that “leaks” would have been found by them (and not pro-windows cheerleaders like WinSupersite)if they weren’t intentional.
Uhm, leaks were actually few days out before Thurott had it. I have Longhorn 4008 installed since 5 days now. Even activated (Blame MS’ stupidity of leaving Win2003 RC2’s activation code in it).
…could it be any more BLUE?
The smart money says that people are actively switching to desktop *nix like MacOSX or Linux and Microsoft is shipping demoware to these professional yeah-sayers to stem the tide.
If that’s the case then MS needs to learn what makes something lickable and good as opposed to just pointless painful eye-candy.
Well! What are you waiting for? Dig in and start distributing if MS is giving them away so easily! Another free OS hits the net
I hobe the design is only a beta too.
It looks horrible.
I believe Microsoft themselves are the ones letting these leaks happen for their benefits.
MS programmers < Open Source
Nothing is “leaked” to Paul. He’s Microsoft’s semi-official chearleader/beta tester on the web. I know he’s not 100% pro-Microsoft, but some times you shure as hell can’t tell it.
Vic
it makes me sick to see the amount of space taken up by the file properities “frame” at the top of the explorer window. Also the “large” clock, and the “slideshow” on the “sidebar” are useless and the sidebar itself takes up too much room. Also all the BLUE IS MAKING ME SICK. Dont get me wrong i like blue and think its easy on the eyes but dont make the whole thing one big blue screen. But i am not a microsoft hater and i look forword to seeing what happens with WinFS and all the other enhansments.
BTW: My main desktop is running WINXP and my laptop is running Xfce4 and i like both very much.
Blue Screens ARE what Microsoft is good at.
Mabye this way they think you just won’t notice…
Vic
Let me get this straight – All new OS from Microsoft (read lots of bugs) – will not run my old software so I will have to buy all new software. Is not intended to work with existing computer equipment so I will have to buy all new stuff. It will have copyright “protection” built in. It may not even be able to make a floppy or burn a CD with out going through a Microsoft website. It sounds to rich for my blood! Linux is looking better every day.
“With all the hackers/crackers on sites like Slashdot”
Please don’t associate the Slashdot user-base with talented computer “professionals”. It’s insulting.
Ugh… I’m sick of hearing people complain about the interface, it’s ALPHA. Remember when all those Mac OS X betas were being leaked? They still used platinum (well.. rhapsody) and look at the difference between that and Aqua.
It WILL change.
“…will not run my old software so I will have to buy all new software.
Did you forget that Microsoft purchased Virtual PC recently? How much do you want to bet MS Virtual PC technology will be inplace to handle legacy apps. It will be sort of like the Mac Classic mode in OSX.
As for the people needlessly bashing the UI, it’s an alpha, get over yourselves. The UI will change once it’s well into its beta stage. Until then they are just tinkering around with different UI concepts to see what works and what doesn’t.
Uhm, have you ever heard of P2P, IRC or Usenet? Seems not.
Using these, you can get these builds and leaked SPs all the time.
It ain’t that to get them, it’s just that most people do not seem to care about them or don’t want to do it illegaly.
Although many obtain Microsoft unreleased software in “alternative” ways some get it straight from the source. No leaking, cracking, authentication or subscriptions required, just knowledge of FTP and DOS CLI and a little guesswork. Is this a way for Microsoft to get unofficial, free beta testers and upcoming product exposure or is it a classic example of Windows “Servers” (un)security model? You be the judge. There have been wide open doors since at least Windows 98 SE.
>pointless painful eye-candy.
If they didn’t you wouldn’t be able to tell the difference between the new product and the old one.
> Please don’t associate the Slashdot user-base with talented computer “professionals”.
Well, he did say “professional yeah-sayers” which sounds like another term for marketdroid, which is a species in the luser (local user – abv.) genus. A “computer professional” who doesn’t consider himself a hacker couldn’t possibly be talented. I think some, both talented and untalented (mostly the latter), still visit Slashdot. Crackers, of course, are a different breed altogether and shouldn’t be mentioned in the same sentence but I think they also frequently visit Slashdot.
I hate to say it, but this isn’t news anymore. This leak came out 4 days ago.
And if you take a look 4 days ago.. they reported it. This isn’t about the leak but about WinSuperSite’s review of the leak.
You don’t read this site much do you?
I’m sure some of you dislike the color blue, but I pretty sure Microsoft’s marketing team spent time researching out what color appeals most to the masses.
And hey, this is way in the Alpha stage, and won’t be released for another 1.5 years. Much could change, and probably much will change.
So hey, M$ has already gotten most of the desktop nailed down, they’re pretty much just glorifying it with neato eye candy and other pseudo-tech. On the other hand, most desktop Linux distro’s are still trying to provide a “complete” solution.
Mind you though, this doesn’t really apply to the business workstation or business desktop systems.
Hey, blue’s a nice color and all, but this is going a bit too far! Those Longhorn shots make my eyes water. Even Apple’s “Aqua” interface is WAY less blue than that!
Maybe we’ll get a “tint” option to make everything orange or green or something. But maybe they’ll scrap this and come up with something else, since this is just an alpha anyway.
Jared
I can’t help myself when someone mentions orange 🙂
How about using a skin, like orangina:
http://space.arsware.org/image/orangina.640×480.jpg
That skin and more here:
http://space.arsware.org/
Makes my eyes bugger out of my head. What a headache, and I only looked at it for a few seconds.
/g
Though I’m sure customization features will be added in some capacity, at least for the corporate crowd, the current version is a simple three-step feature that will have Apple’s ad makers seeing red (“Step three. There is no step three.”). After the Setup Welcome Screen (Figure), you type in your product key (Figure), select the installation partition (Figure), and then Setup collects information about your system and copies files needed for setup to your hard drive (Figure). Then the system reboots and you’re present with a simple Welcome screen (Figure), which presents you with a way to configure user names (Figure). And that’s it, you’re done. There is no step three.
Well in that case Apple’s still a step ahead because on OS X there is no product key. Also in addition to collecting information about your computer it probably collects information about you!
I think the ability to filter files in the explorer windows is cool, but I hope it gets added as a toolbar across the top as an option, instead of having to use a sidebar. MS has gotten way too ‘sidebar’ happy, along with some others (*cough* Mozilla *cough*)
I am using XP with it themed as longhorn appears in the screenshots of 4008, and I personally like the blue on blue apperance, and the sidebar. Granted, this is just an imitation of an actual work in progress, but very functional none the less. The only thing I am missing from Longhorn, (as far as I can tell from the screenshots), is the half-baked attempt at WinFS.
I’ve read the list of Longhorn’s features on Microsoft web site. There are too many of them just for a server. It is a product designed to be everything to everyone. What makes those guys think that it will be possible to weed out most bugs in such a behemoth ?
What is Bill Gates actual title ? If I remember correctly, he chose to become Chief Software Architect. Obviously, he doesn’t take his job at heart.
a new file system paradigm (mostly designed to build in ever more incompatibility with the rest of the competition) is not what customers want
It’s time for a rewrite.
http://www.bluearc.com/barrall/0203_switch.shtml
“What makes those guys think that it will be possible to weed out most bugs in such a behemoth ? ”
They don’t-they let the end user weed out the bugs, just like every other MS release. <grins>
I’m thinking that trying to scale the OS from desktop to server applications is a smokescreen-most likely MS will fork the server and desktop platforms, much the same way they have with XP. What possible need would an end user have for a full on server? None. But architecturally, there wouldn’t be much difference between the new file system for the desktop and the server, so who knows. Maybe they ship the desktop with the hard core server functionality disbabled…..
These screenshots look exactly like the Packard Bell Navigator, which was a desktop shell that ran on top of Windows 3.11 on my old 486DX/2. Everybody who bought a Packard Bell at that time used the Navigator shell for about a day and then shut it off completely and just stuck with straight WFW 3.11. If people didn’t like it then, why would they like it now?