Microsoft Chairman and Chief Software Architect Bill Gates is slated to kick off the company’s Professional Developers Conference here Monday with an overview of its latest pre-beta Windows operating system and how it advances the company’s .NET platform strategies. Read the reports at InternetNews and at NYTimes (free reg. required).
Gates To Kick Off PDC With Longhorn Overview
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Eugenia Loli
Ex-programmer, ex-editor in chief at OSNews.com, now a visual artist/filmmaker.
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In all honesty, it sounds like Microsoft is trying too hard — trying to “innovate”, “integrate”, extend the Windows platform to other devices, etc. Adding more APIs, more features — in other words, more bloat. Now, of course I’m biased — I’m a Switcher who abandoned the Windows world for the Mac several years ago. But one of the reasons I did this was because I knew Apple “got” something Microsoft seems not to: simplicity. To steal a phrase from the Perl crowd, Apple always strives to make easy things easier and hard things possible. To do this, you often need to STRIP AWAY excess garbage and legacy bloat and complicated features, and figure out only what is necessary to complete a task quickly and efficiently. When OS X first came out, it was TOO simple. It was missing a lot of stuff, both in terms of APIs and well as in the interface and bundled applications. Yet Apple has grown the OS remarkably in the last couple of years, but in an intelligent way. The additions to OS X have often been in the realm of subtle refinements. Sometimes Apple has actually made things even simpler than they already were, which is pretty astounding (think Finder).
Now look at Longhorn. Everything you see, hear, or read about Longhorn is that Microsoft is throwing thousands of programmers at it, zillions of dollars at it, adding a zillion new features, etc., etc. The one thing you DON’T hear is this: will it really be a better Windows? (I. e., simpler, leaner, more efficient, more modular, more customizable, more standards-based, more tasteful?)
Somehow I think even the Linux desktop market is going to eclipse Windows before long. At least they are starting to get it: some people want less, not more.
Nice OSX promo. By the way Simplicity and modularity application design has always been a Unix philosophy, not an OSX innovation. If I’m not mistaken these philosophies are over two decades old. However, I do agree with you on all other points.
Unix Philosophy-101
“Rule of Modularity: Write simple parts connected by clean interfaces.
Rule of Clarity: Clarity is better than cleverness.
Rule of Composition: Design programs to be connected to other programs.
Rule of Separation: Separate policy from mechanism; separate interfaces from engines.
Rule of Simplicity: Design for simplicity; add complexity only where you must.
Rule of Parsimony: Write a big program only when it is clear by demonstration that nothing else will do.
Rule of Transparency: Design for visibility to make inspection and debugging easier.
Rule of Robustness: Robustness is the child of transparency and simplicity.
Rule of Representation: Fold knowledge into data so program logic can be stupid and robust.
Rule of Least Surprise: In interface design, always do the least surprising thing.
Rule of Silence: When a program has nothing surprising to say, it should say nothing.
Rule of Repair: When you must fail, fail noisily and as soon as possible.
Rule of Economy: Programmer time is expensive; conserve it in preference to machine time.
Rule of Generation: Avoid hand-hacking; write programs to write programs when you can.
Rule of Optimization: Prototype before polishing. Get it working before you optimize it.
Rule of Diversity: Distrust all claims for “one true way”.
Rule of Extensibility: Design for the future, because it will be here sooner than you think.”
The above are quoted excerps, not my teachings or sayings.
Microsoft has made their API’s cleaner, more logical and reusable with .Net. They are still not standards compliant with their web browser or web development tools though.
Microsoft is working with IBM (through .Net), but not with Linux.
The focus on Longhorn for users will be about security. Will Microsoft have a secure product, that is the primary question.
The deployment of Microsoft technology will be especially important over seas rather than North America. It is very important for Microsoft as well as other vendors (IBM, HP, SUN) to expand in Europe and developing contries. There are very important reasons for this.
After playing with Office 2003 (even slower than Office XP), I do not have any good feelings about Longhorn.
Certainly XP was a speed/weight disappointment after Windows 2000. Turning off the hyper-subclassing engine helped a bit, but XP is still sluggish on the disk compared to 2000.
The UI from the leaked beta looks marginally more functional than XP albeit at the cost of additional visual complexity. I want an OS that can boot in 1-2 seconds. It doesn’t look Longhorn will do that, not by a long shot.
With all the uber-features Microsoft has announced, it seems like something is being built that due to the physics of the software universe will collapse under its own mass as soon as it leaves the dock.
Anyhow, time will tell. All Linux needs is another couple years of development and there will be no reason for Windows. It will be fun to see who has got what in 2006 — Linux, Mac, and Windows.
My guess is that Mac 2006 will be the nicest system but still only available on expensive hardware, Linux 2006 will be a very good system with a solid office suite and will be the fastest growing business desktop OS, and Windows 2006 will be the US government’s mandated OS that US citizens will be forced to use.
it’s from raymonds book “the art of unix programming” http://www.catb.org/~esr/writings/taoup/
I think we can all agree that just about every platform besides windoze will offer the user freedon of choice.
BeOS, Linux, Mac OSX.. all seem to follow the same line of thought, that being, “don’t be evil.”
Microsoft is seriously losing its grip on the market, as I predicted it would. Longhorn will be the final nail in the coffin for a lot of people, who will jump ship en mass.
just my .02 cents.
-Chris Simmons,
Avid BeOS User.
The BeOSJournal.
Microsoft Windows is a product, and it is tied to a business strategy. It is even more of a strategy than an actual operating system because Microsoft controls a large portion of the economy, it has the authority to make important decisions for the country, and it has influence as a power elite. Microsoft has expand it’s user base and now it does not want to give up control over it’s research and development. So Microsoft focuses on prividing more flexible architecture. The flexibility allows them to maintain control and at the same time offer more value to the user. An example is object oriented technology. The user can reuse the implementation or interface of an object, but at the same time the vendor does not have to make the source code available in order for that to happen. The reuse of the object allows it to be specialized for the users domain, it means that the user does not have to create the object, he only has to add a specialization to it. The result is a solution technology. They have abstracted from the system interface (API) because it allows them to be more flexibile, have more control and offer more value, for example, a middleware solution is deployed by a virtual machine runtime that decouples the solution from the native hardware and software architecture. The user does not have to rewrite the application in order to upgrade to a new system, because the vendor takes care of writing a new runtime. This service assists technology to move forward. They would be crazy not to continue to abstract and make users into specialists rather than generalists. This is done so that the vendor offers productivity to businesses who have nothing to do with software, but at the same time the vendor keeps all of the control.
So Longhorn is a strategy and it is and evolving process, and you have to think of it as everything to do with control. This innovation is about offering more value to a certain type of customer (curently businesses) but never at the expense of giving up control. And the best advances are by way of technology that creates the illusion that the user has control…but that’s something that they should never have, it is what you would want them to believe though, if you were Microsoft.
There is also risk. Now Microsoft will have to look at their strategy and they will make decisions about things like Palladium, only if it does not jeopardize the illusion that they have to maintain, maybe they can’t do it all at once, but have to integrate it, but the fact is that they already have the sheets pulled over your head, you just don’t realize it now.
I am not saying to use Linux instead because the same danger exists. Well I see something happening that I can’t comment on at this time, but I don’t see any difference if Microsoft gets it’s way with palladium or not, they don’t want to expose themselves so I don’t think it will happen too quickly. I don’t notice too many thoughts from you people that would indicate that you are generalists, that you will be able to avoid anything that Microsoft does. You are going in the direction of Microsoft even with Linux.
Microsoft Longhorn will reach the market 2 years from now, The advantage MS will have its corporations like Dell will ship every computer with Longhorn, they will be expensive (more due the licensing).
How much do you think Longhorn will cost, $199? plus Office 2003 Licence?
The sad part is Longhorn won’t have anything new, a feature other OS hasn’t implemented before.
I really hate Dell and Marketing.
I rate to buy a computer with no software in it so I can Install and chose what to put on it.
Old Gripers: MS releases waaaay too often with no innovation!
New Gripers: MS releases are just vaporware with too much innovation!
They are adding the .NET Api’s so they can, in the future, remove the older c based. This is one step against a more secure windows.
Java is good. But it was not from the beginning designed to be what it is today. Microsoft had longhorn in mind when they designed .NET. As well as security. Native Windows GUI etc.
Sorry for the java punch. I said it was good.
>They are adding the .NET Api’s so they can, in the future, remove the older c based.
If you think the C Win32 APIs are going away anytime soon (next 10 years). Then I have some property to sell you.
This is just more bloat.
.net is more a replacement for the mfc libraries than it is for java!
What I meant was that they need people to stop using the C based win32api before removing it is possible.
Remeber that they had support for win16 for long after win95.
Two years from now…. Blah, blah, blah…
What happened to the law about preannouncing products? Am I the only one that sees these multiple Micro$oft announcements as trying to keep people from defecting to other OSs? Where’s that stupid Judge when we need her?
To me, the windows name has sunk so low that nothing can salvage it’s reputation. Longhorn is the PERFECT opertunity to revitalize the Windows name. How? They need to make some radical change in the very core of the OS. Radical like moving to a UNIX-based system, or hell, even Radical like buying BeOS from Palm and developing on that.
From the NYT article, page 2:
“Microsoft has not said when Longhorn will be ready, but it is not expected to be shipped until late 1995 or 1996.”
Looks like they’re really late with this one…
I think one thing is for sure, Longhorn is really going to have to up the ante. I really do hope that this new release will be a “technology-based” release. Windows is going to be around for a long while, so it’s time MS really digs in and inspire everyone with a kickass operation system seeing as how they have so many resources to pump into it. For instance, Aero (their new UI) better be damn good. Windows currently looks like open ass. I am running OS X most of the time now and despite its many bugs, I feel I’m using an OS where the creators really are trying to take their product to a new level. There is attention to detail and there are innovative breaks from the usual status quo features while making these new features accessible to the general public (i.e. not making these features so off-the-wall different it’s not palatable for users). Overall, when I use XP, I feel the company could have inspired me a hell of a lot more in so many areas of the OS. For instance, MS used “fast-user switching” before Apple, so why does Apple have a much better implementation? The MS version is jarring . . . I can’t tell if my stuff has gone away permanently with every switch whereas OS X does fast-user switching with a visual cue that suggests to me my stuff will be saved after the user switch. Plus, why on god’s green earth is XP’s implementation so damn ugly compared to OS X’s user-switching where the entire screen rotates around to the new user. I’m sure MS spent more money on the development of XP, but Apple inspires me.
Maybe when I use Longhorn in the future, I will feel that the OS I’m using was created with care and love . . . and just maybe I’ll be inspired and spend even greater amounts of time on my compoopter! Otherwise, it will be the greatest shame and disappointed for a company with so much going for it in terms of market influence and resources to set the bar so low again.
I’m going down to the Charendon Apple Store this Saturday and buying a G5 and monitor. I’ll keep my gaming box under XP just for playing Battlefield 1942 on, and everything else I do will be Mac from them on.
It’s from the Art of Unix Programming, the link to the specific page is
http://www.catb.org/~esr/writings/taoup/html/ch01s06.html
To Eugenia and the Webmaster:
I have come to observe that my proxy server’s IP has been prevented from accessing http://www.osnews.com. I do not know the reason for the ban. I sent you an email, and have yet to hear from you.
The proxy serves more than 500 clients. While it is easy for me to circumvent the restriction, not all other clients connected to the server can.
The linked page seems to make a good argument FOR “Trusted Computing” simply from the standpoint that it will be used to reduce piracy. Understand that I do not like the idea of TC, but I dislike piracy equally if not more. So, making the argument that ‘MS can zap illegal progs and MP3s on my PC at whim’ does not make a convincing argument.
However, the argument that you just invited every software maker licensed to write software for MS and Media Company into your PC would be better. Sorry, I could care less about MS security if it means I have less control over my PC. I could care less about TC if it means that the work I create is not my own. I could care less for MS marketing strategies if it means I can’t run “non-approved” but not pirated, software. It is pure BS if it means they can check my PC without my permission or knowledge.
Hopefully this will not be the case, but as much as that is, it may be. I imagine MS loves the dent the SCO lawsuit placed in Linux and OpenSource deployment. It means less people will have switched by the time Longhorn is ready to gorge.
To show their serious about providing a decent OS.
Any news about Longhorn’s intergrated/Fully functional antivirus/firewall software.
“I am not saying to use Linux instead because the same danger exists. Well I see something happening that I can’t comment on at this time, but I don’t see any difference if Microsoft gets it’s way with palladium or not, they don’t want to expose themselves so I don’t think it will happen too quickly. I don’t notice too many thoughts from you people that would indicate that you are generalists, that you will be able to avoid anything that Microsoft does. You are going in the direction of Microsoft even with Linux”
Some people take all this a little tooo serious. Please step away from the keyboard.
Microsoft has done a really good job on the new API’s and frameworks. The UI is still a work in progress, but the underpinnings are powerful and flexible. Everything in Longhorn is programmed via .NET-style API’s… making all of the plumbing accessible to any programming language that works with .NET (about 20 languages so far).
Overall, Microsoft may indeed have enough carrots in Longhorn to get businesses to sign up without a fuss, thus paving the way towards TOTAL MICROSOFT LOCKDOWN.
Between Longhorn’s Digital Information Prison (DIP) and all the new proprietary API’s, programming models, and data formats, there is no way anyone will be able to switch off Windows. And that is assuming the USGOVT allows the sale of anything other than Windows.