11-27-2002, 10:04 PM
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Executive Editor
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 29,160
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Longhorn Alpha Leaks
http://www.winsupersite.com/reviews/longhorn_alpha.asp
This was just too interesting to pass up - I'm a Windows geek, I admit it. I feel a rush of adrenaline when I rebuild a machine, install Windows, and tweak it to perfection. Longhorn is a long ways off, but it's interesting to see the kinds of things Microsoft wants to incorporate. How does Paul Thurrott get his hands on this stuff? Amazing.
The two most exciting things from my point of view are Avalon, a new graphics engine that will be based on DirectX and allow for any part of the OS to play media. Imagine icons that are actually Flash or video files.  I always cringe when I see the words "legacy support" - sometimes I wish Microsoft would make a clean break from the past, even if it meant breaking 1000's of applications. Yeah, yeah, I know how angry that would make some people, but I look at what Apple was able to accomplish with OS X and I think "Sometimes starting over is a good thing."
The other cool thing about Longhorn will be the way the file system will work - it will be a giant database. I don't know exactly how this will work, but I've heard reports of Longhorn being almost like a GUI sitting atop a Sequel Server engine. Crazy? Perhaps. A significant change to the way Windows works? Definitely.
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11-27-2002, 10:13 PM
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Editor Emeritus
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 10,981
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Re: Longhorn Alpha Leaks
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Originally Posted by Jason Dunn
The other cool thing about Longhorn will be the way the file system will work - it will be a giant database. I don't know exactly how this will work, but I've heard reports of Longhorn being almost like a GUI sitting atop a Sequel Server engine. Crazy? Perhaps. A significant change to the way Windows works? Definitely.
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From what I have heard SQL server will be built into the OS, and EVERYTHING will be stored in a database not just the file system, the registry, etc...
I'm really looking forward to Longhorn. Too bad it's a ways off still. 
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11-27-2002, 10:27 PM
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Thinker
Join Date: Jul 2003
Posts: 468
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Re: Longhorn Alpha Leaks
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Originally Posted by BlueRocket
From what I have heard SQL server will be built into the OS, and EVERYTHING will be stored in a database not just the file system, the registry, etc...
I'm really looking forward to Longhorn. Too bad it's a ways off still. |
Yep, that's what I've heard as well. Sounds VERY powerful!
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11-27-2002, 10:37 PM
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Thinker
Join Date: Jul 2006
Posts: 357
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What DID Apple accomplish with OS X?
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11-27-2002, 10:41 PM
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Pontificator
Join Date: Mar 2002
Posts: 1,329
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Use to care about the next great thing from MS when it came to Windows. Not any more. Monday I installed Redhat 8 and the install was flawless. I then installed CrossOver Office and loaded Office 2000. HEH imagine that Office on Linux. Yesterday I got it up and running on my home network to the point that it could see my shares on my W2K box thanks to Samba. This evening I'm going to work on getting the network printers set up and more importantly  getting Unreal running on Linux.
I've found that I've had more fun playing around with RH then with Windows simply because you can dink around with more right out of the box. Any new version of Windows use to be fun but ME, 2K, XP are all rehashes of the same thing with cool things being added on. There is nothing as fun, from a techno geeks point of view, then learning a new OS and even a new GUI from scratch. Windows has gotten stale. Bring on Linux.
Gotta admit though getting use to having your "driver letters" integrated into the file system has been hard. I keep looking for the dang A or D drive. :P
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11-27-2002, 10:44 PM
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Executive Editor
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 29,160
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by Adamz
What DID Apple accomplish with OS X?
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Perhaps nothing in the grand market share scheme of things, but from a purely "geek" standpoint, OS X is impressive. I spent some time playing with a Mac recently, for the first time in years, and I have to admit I was impressed with quite a bit of it. The animation, the smoothness of the GUI, the tight integration...it appealed to me. And, believe me, that's not easy for me to admit because I generally loathe Macs.
Of course, the insulting fanaticism of some Mac users is keeping me from considering getting one - watching TechTV is a good solution to wanting to get a Mac. If being a Mac user means sneering and making Windows jokes all the time, well, a pretty GUI isn't worth it. :roll: (I know not all Mac users are like that, but the ones on TechTV are)
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11-27-2002, 10:47 PM
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Sage
Join Date: Feb 2002
Posts: 725
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by Jonathan1
I've found that I've had more fun playing around with RH then with Windows simply because you can dink around with more right out of the box. Any new version of Windows use to be fun but ME, 2K, XP are all rehashes of the same thing with cool things being added on. There is nothing as fun, from a techno geeks point of view, then learning a new OS and even a new GUI from scratch. Windows has gotten stale. Bring on Linux. |
You should read this:
New Windows could solve age-old format puzzle--at a price
Linux may be more fun for you but I can't see how you can say that Windows has grown stale in reference to this new file system schema. I admire the Linux movement for it's simplicity and all but I think more what it proves is simply that, for servers, more paired down is better.
But as for GUI I don't think Linux (the various GUI camps of Linux that is) have done anything really that innovative and Microsoft is slowing moving into 3D GUIs which should add a lot to the landscape.
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11-27-2002, 10:48 PM
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Pupil
Join Date: Feb 2002
Posts: 37
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Database OS
I think BeOS was a good example of an operating system where everything was in a database. (You didn't think Microsoft actually innovated did you?)
If nothing else, Mac OSX gave us Mac users the ability to hang out on Slashdot. :-)
Jeff
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11-27-2002, 10:54 PM
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Editor Emeritus
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 15,171
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Re: Database OS
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Originally Posted by jweitzman
I think BeOS was a good example of an operating system where everything was in a database. (You didn't think Microsoft actually innovated did you?)
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Can you provide a link to this? I know BFS was a nice 64-bit filesystem, but I never recalled it being anything resembling an ACID-style database. MS's SQL-backed filesystem is still quite a new idea in a practical mass-market operating system, IMHO.
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Perhaps nothing in the grand market share scheme of things, but from a purely "geek" standpoint, OS X is impressive.
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Indeed, what's nice about OS X is, as Jonathan puts it, the ability to drop down to the low-level command-line and treat it like a UNIX system, and yet keep the slick GUI on top--while RedHat 8 is nice, you're still dealing with a host of weakly-interoperable GUI toolkits in Linux. I wonder if Apple should rein-in the zealots... OS/2 had those - and the most extreme hurt the movement when many in Team OS/2 were only trying to help.
In fact, I'm still tempted to buy a PowerBook G4 as my next laptop, but only if I can test and make sure PocketMac works well--I'm not giving up iPaqs anytime soon
--bdj
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11-27-2002, 11:01 PM
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Linear Mode
