Longhorn at WinHEC
I was surprised at how a lot of the people covering WinHEC were claiming they were underwhelmed with what they saw of Longhorn. Going in with the knowledge that you are going to look at pre-beta software you can’t possibly have high expectations. Maybe I understand this a little better because I’m a developer. I wonder if people realize that Windows XP didn’t look as it does now until it was in, I believe, Beta 2. Before that it had a different and much simpler look. I had been using Windows XP ever since it was in pre-beta stages and the changes that took place along the development were big. The same will be the case for Longhorn.
I will agree that in the two years that passed since Longhorn was announced little seems to have changed. But you have to understand that a lot of resources were taken from Longhorn and put into development of Windows XP SP2. And that was necessary. In my opinion it was worth letting Longhorn wait to deliver XP SP2.
I am however disappointed in the fact that they keep pulling great features out of Longhorn. WinFS is one of them, and other smaller things like the sidebar have also disappeared. And it seems certain features that do stay will be much simpler compared to what was originally planned. If it was my decision, I would have taken as much time as is needed to get everything out the way it was planned starting in 2003. Microsoft should just push the release date for Longhorn to 2007 or early 2008 if this is what is needed. I believe Windows XP has enough potential to carry on until that time with another service pack. Windows XP SP3 could have IE 7, .NET Framework 2.0, the latest version of Media Player and other software updates. Microsoft could even add some new themes to refresh the UI.
This way developers can use Visual Studio 2005 to develop for Windows XP and .NET Framework 2.0 for another 2 years at least, and gives them time to take advantage of the new features which will be introduced in .NET Framework 2.0. For example, I’m not planning on using Windows Forms for any of my applications right now, while I know I will have to use new ways for displaying my UI in Longhorn by the end of this year. If Longhorn would be pushed to 2007, I could consider using Windows Forms. But right now? Right now I’m going to save myself some extra work and just wait for the next platform, which has more continuity (at least 10 years according to Allchin).
In addition, on the 2006 release schedule for Longhorn developers will have to deal with lack of support for a lot of new Longhorn features in Visual Studio 2005. This, in my opinion, sucks. If Microsoft would have a 2007, or early 2008 release schedule for Longhorn, the next version of Visual Studio could be released at the same time, or a bit earlier as Longhorn, with full support for Longhorn, enabling developers to build applications for Longhorn a lot easier and faster.
Microsoft’s competition would like nothing more than for Microsoft to cut a lot of features from Longhorn. Even with a 2007/2008 release schedule, I doubt Linux will be at a point to rival Windows XP. And even if it does get there at that time, Microsoft will release the full force of Longhorn upon the world, and compared to that, Linux will be back to Windows 95 (Windows 3.11?) levels of functionality compared to Windows XP today.
But by cutting and scaling back a lot of features, Microsoft not only disappoints a lot of people with Longhorn, but also makes it easier for the competition to catch up. I like how Bill Gates says they will use all the time that they need to make Longhorn a good release, but I don’t like how they are cutting important features out of Longhorn. I think Gates and Allchin should have more guts to extend the release date for Longhorn to 2007/2008 and truly release something new and exciting, especially when they want it to be the platform for the next 10 years. Put everything back in Longhorn!
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