With the next version of Windows, Microsoft is looking to add a number of laptop-specific features designed to make portable machines both more powerful and at the same time as easy to use as consumer devices such as portable DVD players.
Microsoft Plans Laptop Tune-up with Longhorn
About The Author
Eugenia Loli
Ex-programmer, ex-editor in chief at OSNews.com, now a visual artist/filmmaker.
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Imagine being able to declare a My Multimedia folder where you have all your videos or music collection.
You have a mini windows ala XBOX media player interface. This boots in 5secs and everything in the My Multimedia folder can be played. That would be cool.
Now why aren’t the Linux innovators doing this?
I don’t want MoviX. I would want to use the XBOX Media Player on my PC that I already own.
Woops before continuing my rant I may have found something.
http://www.pvrblog.com/pvr/2004/04/xbox_media_play.html
Although this persons link doesn’t work. Can anyone find it?
Sorry to derail the news item.
I was really liking what I heard so far about Longhorn, and now hearing this, I am even more excited for Microsoft’s newest release. Its going to be a long wait till mid 2006 (assuming that Longhorn isnt delayed agiain)… Maybe we will get a surprise and find out that Longhorn will be released earlier? That would be great! A way to allow users to run a stripped down OS to run DVDs sounds like it would be great if implemented well. One thing I hope that is implemented is some sort of a powersaving device. Watching DVDs sucks power like none other. I dont know if its possible, but it would be cool to maybe limit speeds on the DVD drive to conserve energy (if that makes much of a difference). I suppose that less work of the CPU could be required to run a limited interface, so maybe powersavings could come from there as well… I dont think you need much more than a basic variant of Windows Media Player to do such a thing.
Longhorn on a laptop??? didn’t they just get done saying that you needed a dual 6 ghz processor and a massive GPU to run longhorn??? today’s notebooks run so hot you can’t carry them while using them, where would you put all that heat.
Unless we change to another archetiture soon the heat will be to much for laptops. You can make the die smaller but intel chips pump out so much heat that it doesn’t matter. Don’t look at intel moblie to help either, as they are 1/2 the speed of current desktops so they wouldn’t be able to run longhorn for a long while.
um, the Pentium-m is a great performer. in fact, it is direct proof that you do not need high GHz to get great performance from a CPU. the Irony for intel is that they did such a good job brainwashing you hardware geeks (you know just enough to put a computer together and fix any problems you have but do not know any theoretical details about the hardware construction) that you think if it has a low MHz rating, then it must be a bad performer.
guess what, the Pentium-M and the G4/G5 CPUs do a great job at performing.
I’ve read that the EU has ordered Microsoft to remove Windows Media Player from their operating system.
Will it apply to Longhorn ?
Right now, we can’t play DVD with Windows XP without buying a third-party program, so they plan to add DVD playback out the box ? But in the other hand, they have to remove the WMP ?
Confused.
When was the last time you would rent out a DVD with the missus and fireup the Laptop… lol
:/
Geez could you imagine the battery life? /me shutters.
Anyways…
does anyone know if the server version of longhorn will be able to run w/o the gui(headless)?
> does anyone know if the server version of longhorn will be
> able to run w/o the gui(headless)?
The difference between WinNT4 WS and Server was 2 registry keys and 2 threads that made sure nothing could change those 2 keys. The same with Win2k. Win2k3 has the WinXP startup banner bitmap inside its bootup dll files.
Knowing all this do you think microsoft would actually spend money developing 2, 3, or even 10 different versions of windows to sell to the masses?
I think not.
They make 1 version of windows with all the features. They then decide what the average joe would pay for and weed those features out and charge a bundle for the version with no limitations.
So, in short, No, they will not be releasing a version of Longhorn or Blackcomb or Cairo that is ‘headless’.
If Microsoft releases longhorn with half of the features that they are saying it will be amazing! And this is coming from a big Linux user!
I totally agree with you. WinXP users should be complaining that MS has yet another excuse for Service Pack 2 being delayed. It’s utter nonsense that Longhorn which is several years away can be used by MS to excuse delaying long over due fixes for WinXP.
MS seems to get slower every year with releasing fixes for their Windows. Knowing this I don’t understand why anyone would trust MS when through paid marketing they try to make others beleive they release fixes and updates faster than LINUX distros. Security is supposed to be on the mind of Gates but I just don’t see him or MS proving it.
As for running on a laptop I don’t see how that is possible with their current system requirements. Really who wants or even needs an OS that requires a dual CPU and a minimum of 2 GB of RAM? I want an OS that takes advantage of the second processor but doesn’t require it just to boot. Hopefully someone from MS can clarify this.
:O wow what a ripoff. Oh well I use linux anyways, I dont care if you windows users get bamboozled.
They’ll still proably offer a “classic look” to save a little on resources. If not, it would be pretty hard to justify running it as a server OS.
Yes, Longhorn Server will run headless. Windows Server 2003 already supports this.
There’s a lot more than a couple of registry settings seperating XP and Server 2003. Server 2003 had kernel modifications, feature additions, and behavioral modifications implemented, and shipped some time after XP.
Besides Server offering headless, Longhorn in general, has a tiered interface.
Compatability mode (aka Tier 0), which requires only a VGA card and is equivalent to Windows 2000’s capabilities using software rendering.
Aero experience (aka Tier 1), which delivers minimal hardware acceleration, scaling, and desktop composition, and requires a DX 7-class GPU w/32 MB RAM. Can use an XP driver model driver, but a Longhorn driver model driver is recommended. Graphics hardware will only be used when the appropriate driver is present; otherwise, content will be rendered through software emulation.
Aero Glass experience (aka Tier 2), which delivers the full-featured user experience, including support for 3D graphics and animation. Requires a “Longhorn” Display Driver Model-based driver. The DWM won’t run with earlier display drivers. Minimum of 64 MB graphics memory, 128 MB or greater recommended.
Minimum: 32 bits per pixel (bpp) color
Support advanced 3D hardware acceleration with capabilities equal to DirectX 9
My favorite vaporware OS has a 1.5 second boot time, takes 32 MB of RAM and only 512 MB of hard disk space. It’s rock solid and can pulls each individual leg off of a virus before killing it. It’ll be out in 2008 just wait and see, I’ve just got to get a marketing dept and a good FUD department, then I’ll be set. Pre order your copy today!
I do remember hearing about Tiers, but are you pulling those numbers out of your ass.
Anybody notice how M$ is always braggin’ how great it’s gonna be… while OSX (and most cases of Linux) always talk about how the OS works it is NOW!
Imagine the power of the laptop that would be able to run Longbore… put Linux on it and woosh… so, let ’em give us those machines, we could use ’em
You will read a lot of comments claiming “vaporware”, and you will read a lot of comments about MS delaying releases another six months.
However; The real fear factor crawls into this when you consider MS might actually get it right the FIRST time just once.
Personally, I see the delays of Longhorn and XP SP2 as a good thing. Perhaps, just perhaps they are really going to do this correctly. (not holding my breath)
Needless to say some of the concerns of MS’s competition are well founded. Not only are they welding the hood shut, they are “attempting” to armor plate the vehicle.
Microsoft is certainly aware they are taking a real hit with current security concerns, with that there are obviously a good deal of jobs on the line for anyone at MS who screws things up at this point.
its great that there are tiers and all, but WHY would anyone waste server resources on some fancy gui crap?
the graphics card would handle most of it, but even in a few years, why is there a 128MB DX9 graphics card in a server??
“its great that there are tiers and all, but WHY would anyone waste server resources on some fancy gui crap?
the graphics card would handle most of it, but even in a few years, why is there a 128MB DX9 graphics card in a server??”
Well, you dont need to waste server resources on a fancy GUI. There will be an option to use a plain GUI, similar to the look of Windwos 2000 that will not need a fancy 3D graphics card to run.
I think the point hallgreng is trying to make is that if you have an advanced graphics card in a server, it’s just one more thing to go wrong. The more complex it is, the more functions it supports, the more likely something will be incompatible and cause problems issues.
To be fair to Microsoft (As much I detest them) I think they worked this out. Windows 2003 server has the default Win2K grey theme, and 3D acceleration, Direct X, and (IIRC) sound all disabled by default, right down to a drivers and services level.
Linux zealots could argue that it’s not a patch on *nix, that lets you turn off the server and run it headless – and they right. In headless mode, it’s fairly difficult to admin a Windows server, because many things are meant to be run and configured with a GUI.
However – the article is about Longhorn features for laptops, not servers.
On that note: I do wonder exactly where laptops are supposed to get the power for hardware that Longhorn will demand. I have visions of ultra-minimized components, with the battery being 90% of the laptop.
I cant believe they pulled my rant. Is this Website microsoft centric or what?
I see troll posts here on these forumns all the time, and I keep wondering where good rants end up. They end up on Euiguna’s cutting room floor.
I do remember hearing about Tiers, but are you pulling those numbers out of your ass.
No I’m not. The info was taken from Microsoft’s hardware dev site.
http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/hwdev/tech/display/graphics-reqs.mspx
I noticed after replying to your first post that it was pulled by the moderator. Most likely this was due not to your objection to the article but your use of vulgar language not appropriate on any forum. It’s best to keep posts at least semi-professional. I thought Eugenia would of modded the last paragraph out that included the vulgar language instead of removing it entirely.
> Most likely this was due not to your objection to the
> article but your use of vulgar language not appropriate on
> any forum.
You may be right. I should have not mispelled microsoft as many times as i did.
IMHO this article should not have made it to any front page at all. Eugenia has put up troll news articles before, but this one was the last straw for me. There is very little news of things being made, just ideas floating around that could change at any point in time or is just incredibly fictional.
Vulgar or not the post I made was spur of the moment and convayed my thoughts and feelings at the time of yet another Longhorn announcement that 1) doesnt make sense or; 2) would be worth printing elsewhere.
Quote:
Right now, we can’t play DVD with Windows XP without buying a third-party program, so they plan to add DVD playback out the box ? But in the other hand, they have to remove the WMP ?
__________
You can play DVD’s with free OpenSource mediaplayers like “Media Player Classic”
http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=82303&package…
So you don’t have to buy…
Anyway, these Longhorn stories are a bit rediculous. If a 1ghz won’t even run it decently then I will never ever buy it. All I need is internet browsing, email, some basic programs. A 1 ghz is still enormously fast at those things.
How can they ask so much power to run just the OS, what if I want to run an application on top of that?