Longhorn PDC build leaks to the Internet!
Well, it happened a lot sooner than we had anticipated, but here we are, two days before the pre-show commencement at the Professional Developers Conference (PDC) 2003, and apparently the Longhorn PDC build--Build 4051--has already leaked to the Internet! More info as it becomes available...
10/24/2003 2:00PM EST

Neowin: Longhorn build 4051 to include new Slate theme
According to Neowin, the PDC build of Longhorn will include a new Slate theme, replacing the ugly Plex theme that dogged previous alpha builds. The few available screenshots (one and two or try this page ) are nice looking, with a nice gray look. Of course, even Slate won't be a permanent addition to Longhorn: The Aero UI we'll see previewed at PDC 2003 will eventually be added to all Longhorn builds, probably after Beta 2 in late 2004.
10/24/2003 2:13PM EST

PDC grab bag
Wondering what PDC attendees are going to receive when they arrive at PDC 2003? According to Microsoft, we're getting the technical preview build of Longhorn (build 4051), the latest Longhorn Software Development Kit (SDK), the Next Generation Secure Computing Base (NGSCB, codenamed "Palladium") SDK, a technical preview build of Visual Studio .NET 2004 "Whidbey," an interim (post-Beta 1) build of the SQL Server 2004 ("Yukon"), the Windows Mobile 2003 SDK, and more.
10/24/2003 2:19PM EST

Still no word...
From Paul: Like many of you, I'm waiting to see this leaked Longhorn build, but I haven't seen it yet. In the meantime, I've been prepping for my trip tomorrow. I'm bringing four notebooks to the show: An Apple iBook, a Dell Latitude D800, an IBM ThinkPad R50, and a Tablet PC, along with a slew of electronic devices (iPod, Palm Tungsten T, Mini-DV camera, USB microphone, cabling, etc.) so I can be sure to have the processing power and battery life to keep these updates going continuously during the show. It's going to be a mess no matter how you slice it, sort of a weird mix of scary and fun.
10/24/2003 5:30PM EST

But first, "Night of the Panther"
From Paul: I received Mac OS X 10.3 Panther a week ago (it will be on the iBook I bring to PDC 2003 if you're there and curious), but I just can't stand not to check out the Apple geeks spooging over the "Night of the Panther," which starts at 8:00 pm tonight. As I mentioned in Short Takes, I'll be heading to the Apple Store in the Cambridgeside Mall in Cambridge, Massachusetts to see, again, what it's like on the other side of the fence; I've been to a few of these Apple events previously, and they're every bit as geeky as anything Gates and Company round up for us on the Windows side.
10/24/2003 5:32PM EST