What Will Stripped-Down Longhorn Offer?
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It may be missing a few features, but the OS will be worth the upgrade, Microsoft says.
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Blog: It's cheaper than ever to take the quad-core plunge, but don't spend money on cores you don't need.
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Longhorn&#39;s woes may open a door for Linuxâa very tiny doorâbut Linux just isn&#39;ta good choice for desktops. Instead, desktop Linux proponents should wake up and switch to the Mac OS.
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SEATTLE -- Microsoft will do what it has long said could not be done: sell a stripped-down version of its flagship Windows software.
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As we suggested on Friday, two mainstays of Windows Longhorn will be &#39;decoupled&#39; from the 2006 release, with Microsoft dropping the WinFS storage and query system.
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To meet its timetable, Microsoft has scaled back its technological ambitions for the product, code-named Longhorn.
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Microsoft Corp.&#39;s retreat from its Longhorn ambitions and its decision to add several Longhorn technologies to Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 may rob the next Windows release
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InfoWorld's "Save XP" petition asking Microsoft to keep Windows XP available indefinitely, not end most sales on June 30 as currently planned, has prompted many readers to suggest that maybe the best answer for those who don't like Vista is to switch to another operating system completely.                                                    "Don't be afraid. Just switch to Linux and become a member of a really free society," wrote Carlos Raul Gutierrez.[ Find out the deployment secrets of early Vista adopters ]"Windows Vista was the reason I bought a Mac mini. I didn't want my only choices to be an operating system that would soon be obsolete (XP) or one that was buggy and would break much existing hardware (Vista), and I'm not enough of a geek to use Linux (do things from the command line? Puhleeze...)," wrote "Jack."How realistic is a switch to Linux or Apple's Mac OS X? For some users -- often technically savvy people such as engineers, consultants, designers and CTOs -- it is clearly an option that already works quite well. In the past year, running Mac OS X or Linux as your default OS has been made easier by the capability to run Windows in a virtual machine, giving you access to both Windows-only applications and Web sites that rely on Microsoft's Internet Explorer-only ActiveX technology. But in a business environment, switching to a Mac or Linux PC may not be quite as easy.The Mac OS X option Of the plausible alternatives to Windows, Apple's Mac OS X has the largest market share and history. InfoWorld chief technologist Tom Yager has written that the latest version of the Mac OS, Leopard (10.5), is simply the best operating system available. And Macs are indeed popping up more frequently even within IT circles -- I've seen more MacBook Pros in the hands of CTOs and IT execs at conferences in the past year more than I've seen Mac notebooks in such venues ever. Although there are no real numbers on just the business adoption of Macs, it's clear that Apple is in growth mode, gaining an increasing proportion of all new computer sales for more than a year now.InfoWorld's Yager has chronicled the adventures of one PC user who switched to the Mac OS, showing that for an individual, the conversion was ultimately a rewarding one. The TechWeb site has also provided a good guide on how to make the switch to Mac OS X.A key tool for any Mac OS X switcher is a virtual machine to run Windows for those apps and Web sites that require it. Both Parallels Desktop 3.0 and EMC VMware's Fusion software will do the trick, as InfoWorld's comparative review has shown.Although Macs are compatible with most typical hardware, such as monitors and drives, fitting a Mac into an enterprise's management systems and ERP applications can be a different story. Yager's Mac Enterprise blog and the Mac Enterprise user group both provide advice on managing Macs in a traditional IT environment.The Linux option The more technically inclined may be attracted to Linux, the most popular form of desktop Unix. Linux desktops typically are challenged by limited hardware compatibility (due to lack of drivers), limited application options, and user interfaces that require active participation to get work done, which tends to keep Linux away from the general user population. But those who work with a Linux server all day may find that using it on the desktop as well actually makes their lives easier.Just as Mac users need occasional access to Windows, so do Linux users. Because Linux distributions run on Windows-compatible hardware, it's straightforward to use desktop virtualization software, such as Parallels Workstation, Sun's (formerly Innotek's) VirtualBox, and EMC VMware's Workstation software, to provide access to both environments.Although some enterprises have committed to wide Linux deployment -- such as automaker Peugeot Citro?n's plans to install 20,000 Novell Suse Linux desktops -- most have left Linux to the engineering and development staff.InfoWorld Enterprise Desktop blogger Randall Kennedy argues that desktop Linux is doomed to remain a tiny niche OS, given the Linux community's lack of interest in providing a UI that regular people could use. Kennedy tried to spend a week working on nothing but the Ubuntu distribution of Linux but gave up on the fifth day.But Kennedy's take isn't the last word on desktop Linux. Frequent InfoWorld contributor Neil McAllister put together a special report on how to move from Windows to Linux, concluding that the effort was not as hard as you might think.Who's right? As with any platform choice, they both may be. A one-size-fits-all approach may be unrealistic. And that likely explains why many businesses will have a mix, dominated by Windows XP today (and perhaps Vista in a few years) but not exclusively tied to Microsoft's OS.
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AUGUST 27, 2004  - Microsoft Corp. today announced a significant change in plans for the next major release of Windows, code-named Longhorn.
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One project will let customers run SuSE Linux as a guest on Longhorn, and vice versa.
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Got backup? How about a new 1-terabyte drive for $70 off the usual price?
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The core code for Microsoft&#39;s Windows OS is undergoing a rewrite to make it slimmer for use in a wide range of future products, including&#160;Windows 7, the OS that will succeed Vista.The internal project, code-named &quot;MinWin,&quot; is not being readied for a product just yet but will be part of&#160;Windows 7, said Eric Traut, a distinguished engineer, during a recent presentation at the University of Illinois. A video of his talk has been posted online.The kernel is the fundamental code underlying an OS that manages services for applications such as drivers, file management and memory.&quot;A lot of people think of Windows as this large, bloated operating system, and that&#39;s maybe a fair characterization, I have to admit,&quot; Traut said. &quot;But at its core, the kernel, and the components that make up the very core of the operating system, is actually pretty streamlined.&quot;Traut showed a demonstration of MinWin, which lacks a graphical user interface. It takes up just 25M bytes when stored on disk, compared to the massive 4GB the full Windows Vista OS needs, Traut said.MinWin can run on under 40MB of RAM, he said. &quot;That&#39;s kind of proof there is actually a pretty nice little core inside of Windows,&quot; Traut said.But Microsoft still wants to shrink it. &quot;It&#39;s still bigger than I&#39;d like it to be,&quot; Traut said.Microsoft uses its kernel in a range of products, from its client Windows OS to servers. Keeping the kernel as small as possible enables it to be used in OSes for lower-memory environments, such as embedded devices.&quot;This will provide us the ability to move into even more areas,&quot; Traut said.Microsoft has said it will release Windows 7 by 2010, although the company has not revealed much detail on its features.&#160;
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Microsoft Corp.'s retreat from its Longhorn ambitions and its decision to add several Longhorn technologies to Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 may rob the next Windows release of its glamor, but users and developers gain more than they lose, some observers said Friday.
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Microsoft's next version of Windows, due in 2006, is code-named Longhorn. Last week, after Microsoft said it is postponing what would've been the most profound new feature of Longhorn, the tech comedians started calling the coming operating system Shorthorn.
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Despite the removal of an advanced file system, Longhorn will not be short on features, Jim Allchin tells CNET News.com.
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Microsoft has introduced pricier higher-end versions, as other PC components have fallen in price. So how does it all add up?
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Not everyone is ready to do a complete switch over to the new Intel LGA 775 platform quite yet and perhaps for good reason. Should you decided you would like to say take a peek at it without having to &quot;Sell