Paul Thurrott has been an expert in researching Microsoft's latest products and
Technology
dynamics. On November 18th, he wrote an article about the development of Longhorn and Office12. The author roughly translated some of its contents into Chinese. YORK has extracted a part of Longhorn's introduction, and hopes that friends interested in Longhorn can benefit from it.
First, look Longhorn delay release
this year for Microsoft's next-generation desktop operating system, Longhorn, it was not a good year. With its release time, Longhorn has become the most barbed theme for columnists. There are many critics in the industry who have linked Longhorn to the "Cairo Project" proposed by Microsoft in the mid-1990s. But there is no doubt that, like Cairo, Longhorn has become more and more clearly presented to us.
More than 3 years ago, I wrote an article about Windows 2000 development evaluation. Microsoft has done a good job dealing with small details. In that article, I wrote: "If there is anything that needs to be learned, then I firmly believe that nothing is more valuable than developing a large operating system. Windows 2000 is a great product, its development process and The complexity is much more than the customer's needs. In the future, Microsoft will have a solid foundation, and only need to carry out the re-innovation of technology. For example, Microsoft can develop Active Drectory and Intelimirror respectively. Technology
, and the release of products containing these technical
, and adding new features and functions according to customer needs, which is relatively easy."
Now the same situation has arisen. We can replace "Windows 2000" with "Longhorn", "Active Directory and IntelliMirror" with "Avalon and Indigo", and you will understand what I mean. Longhorn is too big.
But now it seems that this no longer seems to be true. In the afternoon of August 27, 2004, Microsoft released a long-awaited news from industry observers: Microsoft will cut Longhorn and strip some of the technology
out of this huge operating system. . Microsoft's news brief and vague, but there are indications that Microsoft will initially be based on the following principles:
· can not be delayed release. Microsoft didn't have a product like Longhorn that was so protracted. It was released from 2004-2005 to 2006 and even later (there is a rumor that its release time will be delayed until 2007). Longhorn brings less and less excitement to people, and instead it is more ridiculous.
·Office 12. According to Microsoft's original plan, Office 12 will be released at the same time as the Longhorn Special Edition, but the Office 12 process has changed dramatically since last fall. Initially, Microsoft announced that Office 12 can only run on the Longhorn operating system. Later, Microsoft announced that in order to expand the user base, Office 12 will release both Longhorn and Windows XP versions. Now, Microsoft plans to release Office 12 before Longhorn is released.
· repeatedly Longhorn Server version. Release time for Longhorn Server, or with the release of the Longhorn desktop version, or a few years later. This summer, I was told that Longhorn Server was probably released about 9 months after the release of the Longhorn desktop version. This plan is obviously just the prototype of a new plan. Apart
· characteristics. Since last fall, Microsoft has been advocating Longhorn's "three features" - WinFS file storage system, Aalon graphics system, Indigo web service platform. Microsoft has promised that these three features will be applied to Longhorn and will never have moisture. Earlier this month, I learned from the Microsoft Research Institute that the Indigo feature was almost developed and it will be applied to Windows XP SP2 and Windows Server 2003 respectively. I feel very shocked that these features that Microsoft added to Longhorn earlier seem to have some false components. What makes me wonder is whether this feature will be applied to the future Longhorn?
· The core choice. I found that the development team working on Longhorn seems to be somewhat uncertain. They were originally based on the Windows Server 2003 core, but abandoned and then turned to Windows XP SP2 based. This surprising discovery shows that Longhorn is once again prolonged to be released, unless there is a dramatic change.
Second, the future Longhorn exactly what features included?
Microsoft claims that Longhorn will be available in 2006, but it is said to wait until the end of 2006. On the contrary, longhorn will be used in 2006. This means that Longhorn will be available at the beginning of the year. "We will provide guidance and clarify the planned release date, which has never been seen before. We have made some plans on the beta release, but it is not the final release date. So the guidance and clear content will be new. Providing clear content will benefit consumers, especially business users. So we used the term widely used because our first goal was in the first half of 2006. It is very likely to be achieved in mid-2006, so the clarification is "BR"
Microsoft Vice President Jim Allchin mentioned in an e-mail to his employees on August 27 that Microsoft customers "trust our eyes", but they hope to be as soon as possible See the finished product. According to his sources, Microsoft will publish the following characteristics in 2006: the history of the most powerful operating system
· Microsoft.
· New information management tools to increase efficiency, including telling desktop search and novel, intuitive ways to manage files.
· Based on the Windows XP SP2 security features, such as the introduction of new technology
to defend against attacks, viruses, spyware and so on from the network.
· Provide flexible and powerful, but inexpensive deployment for enterprise market users, including image creation, editing, and installation technology
; providing customers with easier upgrades.
· Improvements in "trustworthiness", including more robust component diagnostic tools, rapid analysis and repair tools, and new data backup tools.
· Provide developers with a very easy to use and powerful API features.
three, Longhorn development schedule
learned from Microsoft's internal file an I first read last October, due to the delayed Longhorn release, Microsoft is planning a The more challenging Longhorn release schedule, and the long-awaited Beta1 release will be released on February 16 this year. According to Microsoft's latest timetable, Microsoft will lock the BETA1 version earlier in December 2004. At present, the Longhorn development team has withdrawn from the “history monument” stage, because its version naming starts to use similar M8, M8.1, M8.2, and the Office team is busy with the development of Office 12, which is also related to the release of Longhorn. process.
Let us look at Microsoft's internal documents of the schedule for Longhorn.
Longhorn release schedule (internal document, October 2004)
Longhorn D1 (also known as M9) Development end date: November 10, 2004
Longorn Beta 1 internal development End Date: 2004, November 11 to November 24
Longhorn Beta 1 Lock Date: November 29, 2004 to January 14, 2005
Longhorn Beta 1 Optional Release: 2005 1 From January 17th to February 16th, 2005
Longhorn Beta 1 Release Date (Desktop Version and Server Version): February 16, 2005
...
Longhorn RTM Release Date: 2006, 5 Month 22