With the release of Microsoft’s Service Pack 2 for
Windows XP later this month, users will be re-evaluating their
upgrade plans.
Existing Windows XP desktops are likely to receive the SP2
update, while Windows 2000 users have the choice of moving directly
to XP SP2 or waiting until Longhorn, the next major Windows release
arrives.
Service Pack 2 is widely viewed as a significant update,
offering greater security and bundling more functions into the
operating system. More importantly, it will offer a taste of things
to come from Microsoft: the eagerly-awaited operating system
codenamed Longhorn.
This, the next version of Windows, has been described by
Microsoft chairman and chief software architect Bill Gates as the
biggest product release for Microsoft since Windows 95.
"[Longhorn] is going to be a very big release: the biggest
release of this decade," he told a developers conference in October
2003. "We are tackling three different areas: the fundamentals -
that means the security - the auto-installation and applications
not interfering with each other."
Currently scheduled to be released in 2007, Longhorn will alter
the way the operating system functions and integrates with other
applications.
Neil Macehiter, research director at analyst firm Ovum, said,
"Longhorn is a very significant release for Microsoft and it does
change some of the rules of what an operating system does.
Microsoft is fundamentally re-architecting the operating system so
it can deliver more sophisticated capability than before."
Planned new features include a new mechanism for storing files,
technology to help different applications to talk to each other,
probably using web services technology and speech recognition.
Meanwhile, Longhorn development rumbles on. In June, Microsoft
released an early version of the operating system to subscribers to
its developers network and to WinHEC 2004 conference delegates.
"The WinHEC build represents the next milestone of Longhorn on
the way to the final release," said Chris Sells, content strategist
for the MSDN Longhorn Developer Centre.
He said Microsoft plans to provide regular updates of Longhorn
code to the developer community to obtain their feedback.
Although Longhorn is still three years away, IT directors and
their system software developers can begin to review the operating
system and plan their IT strategy.
The Longhorn developer community is already producing ideas for
new applications and initiatives using the next version of
Windows.
Third-party suppliers are working on ways to combine voice,
video and data in the next-generation graphical interface, Avalon.
They are also developing voice functions for speech-to-text
conversion and a new graphic interface called Facetop. This appears
to project the end-user’s face over the windows and applications
they are working on.
But the changes to the platform may be too ambitious, according
to some industry commentators who are sceptical about the potential
take-up of Longhorn.
Annette Jump, principal analyst at Gartner, said, "Microsoft is
not very good at communicating the roadmap or sticking to it."
Longhorn’s beta and final release dates have slipped already,
with final availability being delayed a year to the first half of
2007, she said, adding that most companies will wait a further year
before adopting it.
"Microsoft is keeping very quiet about Longhorn. This could
present a problem of how to persuade customers to sign up to
licences if they don’t know when it is out," said Jump.
Gates has talked about the Longhorn wave: a number of Longhorn
products are being released before and after the operating system,
although they will be aligned with the core operating system.
Products such as Visual Studio 2005 (code-named Whidbey) and SQL
Server 2005 (Yukon) will come out before Longhorn, but will contain
some of its technology. Next-generation products, such as Visual
Studio, code-named Orcas, are expected post-Longhorn.
Microsoft builds three pillars for Longhorn
- Pillar one is a common communications framework, called Indigo,
which can control the way different applications communicate and
share data. Indigo works out how to package information and the
best channel on which to send it, whether that is web services
through the .net infrastructure, by using peer-to-peer technology
or instant messaging.
"All the investment Microsoft is making into web services will
appear in Indigo," said Neil Macehiter, research director at
Ovum.
Although the changes Microsoft is making will have benefits, he
said, they will also affect the fundamental design of other
applications. "The implications for Microsoft’s other technologies
are very significant: where, for example, does Microsoft Exchange
store its information if you change the operating system’s file
system?"
- Pillar two is a storage mechanism for files in the operating
system, which will sit on top of the NT File System. Microsoft is
tying certain elements of relational databases and the data
exchange standard XML into the data filing system to give users
more control over how they store and access their data. It will use
a common store for data such as contact information which can be
accessed centrally by Outlook and an instant messaging
client.
Macehiter said, "WinFS essentially allows users to define more
about how they want information to be stored and the relationship
between data. You can build up some sophisticated ways to manage
your data. Microsoft is exploiting the expertise it has in Sequel
Server and relational databases and applying it to the operating
system."
- The final pillar is a graphical user interface, dubbed Avalon,
which has 3D and 2D elements and features such as transparent
Windows.
Microsoft has chosen a design-led, rather than a programmer-led
approach and will allow the application developer to define what
they want to see on the desktop, or how they want an application to
look, and the code will match it, said Macehiter.
"Apple and Macromedia have been doing this for a long while and
successfully. Microsoft is clearly trying to extend the desktop and
reassert the position of the rich client, as opposed to the
browser," he said.
The image revamp will also help companies to deal with the vast
amounts of data produced by IT systems, Microsoft believes.
Another significant addition to Longhorn is the Dynamic Systems
Initiative, which is akin to IBM’s adaptive and autonomic computing
aspirations. Microsoft’s initiative can be used in a datacentre to
automatically add and take away computing or storage resources as
applications require, and manage the infrastructure as a whole.
However, complete resource automation through DSI is six- to
eight years away, according to Microsoft.
Is Longhorn worth the wait?
Annette Jump, principal analyst at Gartner, said that for
organisations using Windows 2000 rather than Windows XP, Longhorn
may be their next standard platform, depending on when it
arrives.
The main question users have to ask about Longhorn is whether it
will be compatible with previous versions of Microsoft software
such as Office, she added. Companies should talk to Microsoft’s
software partners to see what they are doing about compatibility,
she advised.
Ovum research director, Neil Macehiter, said users need to be
clear about whether some of the more eye-catching features in
Longhorn will be useful for businesses.
"There needs to be a clear business case for Longhorn. Is a 3D
desktop useful for a call centre? Probably not. There are
compelling capabilities, such as [messaging framework] Indigo,
especially for companies that do a lot of application development.
And I understand there will be a version available that runs on
Windows Server 2003."