“If you’re a Net junkie like me, you’ve probably seen screenshots that reportedly expose upcoming user interfaces for the next two versions of Windows (code-named “Longhorn” and “Blackcomb”). You might have heard of internal alpha builds of either OS, and maybe, just maybe, you’ve seen the infamous Blackcomb movie that’s making the rounds as well. I’ve spent the past few months investigating all of these things, and after speaking with several Microsofties and uncovering the truth behind the wild stuff that’s available on the Internet, I thought I’d provide a little heads-up on what’s really going on with the next version of Windows.” Read the rest of the story at Windows SuperSite.
The Road to Windows Longhorn
About The Author
Eugenia Loli
Ex-programmer, ex-editor in chief at OSNews.com, now a visual artist/filmmaker.
Follow me on Twitter @EugeniaLoli
I just really want the wallpaper from the 3rd screenshot from the top. Don’t care if it’s fake it looks very nice. Second thought its wall paper it can’t really be fake it’s a photo, unless they were playing with photo shop.
seems to me that the new user features postulated for Longhorn is very similar to whats in OS X (DVD burning, media authoring, etc…). whats more interesting is whats going to be under the hood: the so-called storage+ and more user-land hooks.
storage+ is a very good idea. a move away from the stupidity of FAT and towards a more flexible system combining registry and file-system. each entry would not necessarily be a file, but could include attributes like BFS with full searchability and behind the scenes stuff like device inodes…
user-land hooks: this just means better skinnability. maybe i can finally rid myself of the start bar all together. it could be a move towards the possibility of having a separate window-manager that can be replaced.
microsoft have this great research coming into view. i just hope they dont screw up the implementation this time…
hmm.. i saw those screenshots and i think that <a href=”http://cotito.free.fr/projects_Gonx_index.html“>these fakes are MUCH better
That Gonx UI is awesome
but will blueOS ever make progress?
Or is it dead already???
I don’t like any of the screenshots (except for the backgrounds with the road). It is good to Be a Mac user! I sure hope Apple doesn’t take this approach. And it looks like an old IBM trick… make people think you’re going this way, when actually you’re doing just the opposite, so they take the bait and lose again!!!
I never got to see all of them from that sight before, thanks for the link! I hope the OBOS guys see those! It’s a real nice compliment to the original BeOS GUI!!!
Here’s a general rule about any kind of organization. You don’t screw your people over. You also should never alienate anybody who is essentially giving their time to you for FREE. I worked on BlueOS for a while on the native app_server. We (me and Guillaume) got pretty far. After I was done (I’d say I gave him a good 20 hours by then) he just stopped answering e-mails.
AtheOS and Linux are about the same age. The difference? Kurt cries about who can do what and what people can’t help with, and Linus lets everyone who wants to help into his team.
Basically, BlueOS, though a HUGELY promising project, will never amount to anything because nobody wants to help a guy who doesn’t answer e-mails and talks smack constantly. Social engineering, people.
If I was BlueOS, I’d forget the OS idea and make a BlueDE, using their interface kit and the app_server that renders to X windows (not the native one). Who is Guillaume to call his project an OS? He didn’t write a kernel, he didn’t write drivers, he didn’t write X. He wrote a GREAT toolkit. So scratch the OS idea and run with BlueDE. Really, I’m sure most of the BePeople liked their interface, they probably weren’t attached to any other part of the system. The kernel was surely nothing to be proud of.
Oh, yeah, and nothing non-GPL survives on Linux. Period. So, whatever you do, GPL it. Or artistic license or BSD license but don’t even consider writing a closed-source project and expecting it to fly with the Linux crowd.
My $.02
>AtheOS and Linux are about the same age.
Linux = 1991
AtheOS = 1996
And AtheOS has been in the form we see it today only since 1999. It was re-written many times since 1996.
>The difference? Kurt cries about who can do what and what people can’t help with, and Linus lets everyone who wants to help into his team.
Kurt never asked for the help of anyone. It is his project solely. He does not like administrating patches, he just does his own thing and it just happened for people following. Linus may want to create a successful and fully supported OS, Kurt does not. Kurt is just a coder in search of knowledge.
Get a clue before you open your big mouth.
CattBeMac -> i got that link from another BeShare user. BeShare running under BeOS – os that still runs perfectly here
The page doesn’t want to seem to load for me, so I can’t really comment on what this storage+ thing is. However, NTFS, since version 5 (Win2K version), has supported extended attributes like BFS, and other filesystems. The difference between BFS and NTFS is that the Tracker allowed a native method for viewing, editing, indexing, and searching through those attributes, while Windows Explorer provides no such mechanism. Microsoft designers have said several times that the functionality is there, however they will not code an interface for it, and leave that to the realms of third-part developers. As much everyone on this site seems to hate Microsoft, Windows 2000 was a step in the right direction.
As for as the comparisons between Linux, AtheOS, and the like: I have been lurking on the AtheOS list for a while now, and the accusation that Kurt “cries about who can do what” is completely absurd. As far as I can tell, BeOS and AtheOS follow similar design principles, and are fairly contemporary systems with one another, with one major difference: AtheOS is the product of one single individual. The OS proper is Kurt’s domain solely (and while the code is GPL for right now, Kurt is the only one making changings to it), and third-party apps and drivers are available and encouraged from many different authors. (Just check out Brent’s http://www.kamidake.org to see what I mean.)
I think people need to do a little bit of research and make intelligent posts with the facts at hand, instead of posting the first fallacy that comes to mind.
— Rob
he must have stopped answering your enmails for a reason?
well, maybe you can donate your app server to openbeos or something…
Eugenia, my point wasn’t where AtheOS was _supposed_ to go, it’s where it IS. Linux is hugely used, AtheOS kernel doesn’t really support any hardware yet. Linux was farther in 1997 than AtheOS is now. Also…
for Rob (from the AtheOS web site):
I want to keep the development of the kernel, native FS, GUI, desktop manager, and maybe a few other system components to my self at least at the moment and leave device driver and application development to everybody else.
Note, I don’t have a problem with this, but to try to develop a large-scale OS project with a model like this is absurd.
If anybody wants the native app_server, it’s pretty cool and I kept working on it for awhile so now it supports a lot of stuff. Nebody want it?
Y’all watch out, I’m 31337 hax0r
Why don’t you join the ‘OBOS’ project with the OpenBeOS Group, they are currently needing some volunteers and such, and the app_server area was in need the last time I looked?!
http://www.openbeos.net/
http://open-beos.sourceforge.net/
Good luck!
>…to try to develop a large-scale OS project with a model like this is absurd.
Why? I think you have misanderstood the whole AtheOS goal. Kurt writes AtheOS for pure fun and for gaining knowledge of how to design an whole OS. He does not want to create a “large scale OS” that will take over Microsoft or something. AtheOS is Kurt’s project. He lays down the rules of the game. His code is GPL, so if you want to fork it and do stuff with it, go ahead. But when it comes to the AtheOS source tree itself, he is the boss and you play by its rules. If you don’t like the rules, go to Linux. If AtheOS never go anywhere, that is absolutely fine with Kurt (and with me). It was not his intention to take over the world and create a full blown OS and have many users, only to gain knowledge.
If someone else messes up with AtheOS internals, and gives a solution (patch) to Kurt for a given problem, Kurt will not “learn” how to overcome the problem at hand. It will be like having easy solutions, submitted by others. But that is not his goal. I hope you understand.
If you indeed want to make AtheOS a full blown OS that does everything and it is usable by everyone, then you should fork it. Because Kurt ain’t gonna make it happen. It is not his goal.
tj what is good about your app server? what have you changed? why not make it available on bebits?
well, I think all of them are not final, and fake. the UIs are way to redigulouse to be anything usable.
Eugenia, you just repeated what I had said in different words. LARGE-SCALE!
My (er… our) app_server is pretty fast and uses very little CPU usage to move a window. It was for BlueOS so it runs on top of X.
I am already a member of OBOS but they don’t need me (or someone with my skill area) yet.
Does Microsoft realize that their logo for Longhorn bears striking resembelence to that of the Cult of the Dead Cow (makers of Back Orifice)???
I was using windoze since 3.1 up to w2k it’s time to swich. it’s time to stop biyng a slave.
Cheers