Print - Live from PDC 2003: Day 1, Monday

I love the smell of outage in the morning

I woke up early this morning to get some work done and ... ta da! ... the Marriot's Internet connection was down. This necessitated some quick thinking on our parts, and we finally edged over to the LA Convention center to hop on the wireless network. Many SuperSite updates will go up today, so check that site in a few hours.

10/27/2003 7:02AM PST

The moment we've all been waiting for...

...is nigh. We can't remember the last time we actually were looking forward to a Gates keynote, but in about an hour, Microsoft's illustrious Chairman and Chief Software Architect will take the stage at Hall A of the LA Convention Center and, for once, he will have our rapt attention. Stay tuned...

10/27/2003 7:26AM PST

Geeks at play

When the finally opened the doors to Hall A at the LA Convention Center, a melee ensued as geeks almost trampled each other to get in, many of them running full-speed to their seats. So if you still don't believe this event is a big deal, consider the evidence: This crowd doesn't run without a reason. We took a short video of the stupidity, which might be required for a Cops-style exposé later.

10/27/2003 8:15AM PST

Gates keynote

Gates is about 30 minutes into his keynote as I write this, and so far it's a real snooze-fest. They did show a nice video before he came on stage that showed off a bunch of Aero stuff, and not surprisingly it looked exactly like the Aero preview I published on the SuperSite back in August. So far, however, Gates hasn't gotten to the future, and is instead taking attendees through the company's work to this day. Yawn.

10-27-2003 9:15AM PST

Longhorn speech capabilities

Gates finally mentioned Longhorn, noting that the next Windows will have huge gains in both speech recognition and synthesis, and in searching.

10-27-2003 9:17AM PST

Longhorn rocks

Well, we finally got a lengthy Longhorn/Aero demo and ... my goodness. Longhorn is going to rock, and we're only disappointed that the build we got doesn't show this system's best features off effectively. The transparent window effects--called glass windows, appropriately enough--are beautiful. The ability to embed video and any other kind of media into documents, apps, and anything else you can think off--even small previews you see when you mouse-over a scrollbar--are just incredible, surpassing anything on any system available today (yes, including Mac OS X Panther). The visuals in Longhorn are just going to blow you away, and the good news is we have plenty of photos and video to prove it.

10/27-2003 9:40AM PST

Longhorn pillars

The Longhorn product family will be built on three core pillars: Avalon, WinFS, and Indigo, utilize a new MSBuild engine, and provide a new programming model called WinFX. Avalon, as SuperSite readers know, is a new vector graphics-based presentation layer that enables striking animation features, transparencies and translucencies, and other awesome effects. WinFS, as first reported on the SuperSite, is a new data storage engine that builds on NTFS, providing for logical data views that are very powerful. Indigo is a new communications subsystem that will form the basis for next-generation Web services. We're getting a pretty serious drilldown on these technologies as I write this.

10/27/2003 10:26AM PST

Allchin keynote

Microsoft Group Vice President Jim Allchin's keynote address is focusing more on the technical how-to's of Longhorn, and he's brought programming gurus Don Box and Chris Anderson on stage with him to show just how easy it is to program with WinFX, Avalon, and all the other new Longhorn technologies. It's exciting stuff, though at two hours, a long, long keynote.

10/27/2003 11:27AM PST

Windows roadmap

Allchin discussed Microsoft's plans going forward for Windows, and the roadmap includes a few new items. The next version of Windows XP Tablet PC Edition, codenamed Lonestar, will debut in the first half of 2004; we're meeting with the Tablet folks about this tomorrow. Longhorn Beta 1 will ship in Summer 2004, he said, noting that Longhorn was still very early in its development cycle. Performance is not good, he said, telling attendees that Microsoft has never handed out code this early for any Windows version.

10/27/2003 11:48AM PST

The PDC 2003 Bits package: What we got

We were among the first to get the PDC 2003 Bits package, and here's what's inside: Inside Longhorn for Developers, an MS Press book by Brent Rector; a WinFX developer preview poster, and a gorgeous CD case (called "the goods") with DVDs of Longhorn DVD 1, Longhorn DVD 2, Virtual PC 2004 beta CD, Yukon CD, and Whidbey DVD. The Longhorn DVD 1 contains Longhorn x86, Longhorn x64, Longhorn IA-64, Longhorn Symbols, Longhorn SDK, Longhorn Driver Kit, Tablet PC SDK, and Windows Mobile SDK, along with whitepapers, guides, presentations, and sample chapters.

10/27/2003 12:02PM PST

The Sessions never end

I've had a heck of a time getting video content uploaded to the magazine, but I'm still trying. Meanwhile, it's been an afternoon of mostly-Avalon-related sessions. Suffice to say, Avalon is incredible. Microsoft describes it as an integrated platform for UI, media, and documents that uses a vector-based graphics engine and is completely backwards compatible with legacy applications. It's an interesting merging of Web-based applications and standard Windows applications that I'll investigate fully in a showcase soon on the SuperSite for Windows.

10/27/2003 3:06PM PST

Longhorn: Mobile PC Friendly

We went to an excellent session called Mobile Applications and Longhorn this afternoon. Apparently, everything in Longhorn is optimized for mobile PCs and Microsoft is putting a lot of effort into making the mobile experience as seamless as possible for laptops/Tablet PCs. That means improved power management, network awareness and multi-monitor support. Longhorn will also include a Location API which will provide the user's location with other applications, providing true presence information for the first time. We'll be attending a session on the Location API in the next few days and should have much more details soon.

10/27/2003 3:45PM PST

Don Box Attracts the Masses

We also went to a session on Indigo, imaginatively titled "Indigo": Services and Future of Distributed Applications." Presented by the hilarious and genius Don Box, the session was excellent and, of course, humorous. The room was absolutely packed and we were relegated to the floor on the side of the front screens. It got so uncomfortable at one point we considered bailing, but there wasn't any floor space left to walk out on. Absolutely crazy.

10/27/2003 5:05PM PST

Some video content now available on the SuperSite for Windows

We're having some amazing bandwidth issues in the press room; apparently there are just too many people hitting the network, and it keeps going up and down. But fear not, there is some video content available now on the SuperSite and more is on the way for tomorrow morning. What's there now? Videos of the crowd running into the hall, a Longhorn promotional video with some Aero stuff, and Gates being introduced. We'll have some real Aero stuff up tomorrow as well as more photo galleries. Sorry for the delays!

10/27/2003 5:09PM PST

Party at the Standard

Microsoft held an invite-only party on the roof of the Standard Hotel in downtown Los Angeles this evening, a very cool place to be, with great views of the city. Don Box's band, "Band on the Runtime" (insert groan here) provided musical accompaniment, sadly a very lame set of cover songs with computer industry lyrics. The lowest point came when Box dragged out Ximian's Miguel de Icaza and actually sang a rendition of the Beatles' Michelle (renamed to Miguel, of course) to the startled open source programmer. Eek. Anyway, that was enough for us, so we retreated to our own hotel for sweet sleep. Spare us.

10/27/2003 11:02PM PST

Reader Comments

Paul! Try To Find Out As Much As You Can About Microsoft 'Project Green', While You're There! This Is ***IMPORTANT***! - The L1 Ranger!

The L1 Ranger! -October 27, 2003

Paul! Please Publish a "RSS" Newsfeed For Your: "Live from PDC 2003: Day 1, Monday", Day 2... Etc. As I'm Following The Story of The PDC 2003 Primarily Thru My RSS Newsreader! If You Don't Know How To Code-Upa "RSS" feed, I Will Be Happy To Do It 4 You!;-) Also, Reverse The Order of Your Posts Here On Your "Live from PDC 2003: Day 1, Monday" To Have The Latest Post At The Top Of The Page! This Is The "Continuning" Problem w/Microsoft! U Got ALL This Nice Tools & Either U Don't Use Them Or Don't Know How To Use Them! Drats! Come'On!

The L1 Ranger! -October 27, 2003

geeks almost trampled each other?!?!?! and there's a video? POST IT! POST IT! POST IT! POST IT! POST IT! POST IT! POST IT! POST IT! POST IT! POST IT! POST IT! POST IT! POST IT! POST IT!

travis -October 27, 2003

Hi, when are you going to post some videos - to see the "just incredible, surpassing anything on any system available today" ? :) Editor's note: It will be tomorrow, apparently. We're having a heck of a time uploading them, probably because of all the people here. But they're on the way, along with a bunch of photos. --Paul

Pavel -October 27, 2003

Sounds like heaven. I've seen previous versions, but this one looks the best. Am I right in thinking that Longhorn x64 is an alpha version for the Athlon64 processors? Editor's note: Yes, that's correct. --Paul

Andrew Guyton -October 27, 2003

Sounds like heaven. I've seen previous versions, but this one looks the best. Am I right in thinking that Longhorn x64 is an alpha version for the Athlon64 processors?

Andrew Guyton -October 27, 2003

this is absolutly amazing i enter this site and winsupersite 3 times a day

shmuel -October 27, 2003

Great work guys, going to be watching the site over the week to get news. Been trying out the Longhorn release here and now that the speed issue is sorted its looking very nice. Bring on the Aero!

Craig Bovis -October 27, 2003

Paul! Please Add Your, "Live from PDC 2003: Day 1, Monday" Blog?, To The "PDC Bloggers - The Feed": http://pdcbloggers.net/Feed.aspx ...& Add a "RSS" Newsfeed For Your Site! Come'On! :-(

The L1 Ranger! -October 27, 2003

What about .NET? Is WinFX just a name change for .NET or another technology? They managed so many resources to promote .NET and now they are letting it die?

tralek -October 27, 2003

Post the video of the Geeks running!! Editor's note: It's up. :) --Paul

RedWolves2 -October 27, 2003

All the bells and whistles are nice. However, I was hoping that security, stability, and reliability would be the key features of this years PDC. In my opinion, if the foundation of the next Windows is not radically improved, the trickle of Linux converts will become a flood.

Dean Sheley -October 27, 2003

Ok, well, sound great but just want to know if that ver is going to be faster that the build 4029 cuz i tried it and was definitely slow on my AMD XP 1800 ...Im i losing my time downloading 4051 ?? Editor's note: Build 4051 is just as slow. --Paul

Proy -October 27, 2003

Thank you Paul for this update - looked forward all day to check out your experiences today. Please keep it up. I'll check back Tuesday after work for more. Terry

Terry Sutherland -October 27, 2003

Paul, are you going to add any of those Aero photos or anythign else to the site today? Editor's note: Yes. Sorry for all the delays. the Internet connection here and with the people who post that stuff has just been horrendous making it hard to get these things uploaded. --Paul

Sid -October 27, 2003

As soon as I saw that Aero Rock video I got all charged up. Please keep it coming I need my fix. Thanks, Deren Smith

Deren Smith -October 27, 2003

"Band on the Runtime"? Is that for real? Editor's note: I wish it wasn't, but yeah, it's real. :) --Paul

david w -October 28, 2003

We want the longhorn/aero pictures! ;-)

Rogier -October 28, 2003

Just want to say thanks keep up the great work on the updates thanks. have look at build 4029 i can't want to get a copy off build 4051, love the videos as well. injoy the rest off the PDC

Christopher Yow -October 28, 2003

I heard there was still some of those memory leaks in Explorer and oher various parts of it. Does Microsoft know about thse and working to fix it? Editor's note: I hadn't heard that, but I have experienced it (356MB used by explorer.exe, for example). Hopefully there will be a fix. --Paul

Darien -October 28, 2003

Some questions for you Paul: - About that speech recognition: Will it be available for all languages or just english? - Is the MSBuild-engine the successor of win32 (new kernel?)? Editor's note: All languages. WinFX is the successor to Win32. MSBuild is really a way to deploy applications and, eventually, the OS. --Paul

ZippyV -October 28, 2003

Please post videos!!! :)

Paul -October 28, 2003

Will Indigo utilize any part of Microsoft's .NET or is it a completely new framework? Editor's note: It is all .NET. --Paul

Bharath S -October 28, 2003

"...geeks almost trampled each other to get in, many of them running full-speed to their seats...This crowd doesn't run without a reason." Oh, please. THAT is very nearly the textbook definition of "disturbing". Editor's note: I agree. --Paul

Wendy Rebecca -October 28, 2003

Paul, sorry man, but nobody cares sqaut about Longhorn. By the time that bloated, ugly, slow POS comes around, Macs will be years ahead (as they already are), and Linux will be taking over the desktop. Maybe you should start learning some Linux instead of listening to idiots brag about their new products that are only eye-candy with features stolen from other OSes. Editor's note: Sorry, but the 7000 people rushing the stage to see it two years early suggests otherwise. --Paul

B.K. -October 28, 2003

sorry B.K. i would continue to use xp for next 3 years if only for clear type.

SImon -October 28, 2003

The AERO looks nice, but the real question is, do we really want it? I think areo is going to slow down the system so much it becomes unattractive after a while, I often find myself optimizing the performance of menus, themes and stuff even though i have a good comp, because it's windows!

jie^ -October 29, 2003

Sorry the love ballad grossed you out. BOTR is a very inside joke that isn't for everyone. I guess that's why we only play private parties and not the big arenas... Editor's note: For the record, both Keith and I know you're the man. And snagging Miguel would be a major coup. --Paul

Don Box -November 04, 2003

Regarding the Longhorn preview: "...surpassing anything on any system available today (yes, including Mac OS X Panther)" I can't believe a reasonably intelligent person would write that: it is analagous to: "2006 is going to be a higher number than any year available today... including 2003." OS X is here today, so regardless of what you think of the Mac platform, the comparison doesn't fit. And now, with Gartner giving a 50% chance that Longhorn will be out even later than 2006, your comparison is really worthless. A bit of objectivity actually would give you credibility. That's a prediction you can bank on.

Toeknee -December 13, 2003

I agree with Toeknee. It seems like you have something to prove by mentioning Panther, almost like you are jealous that Windows is not superior to Mac OS as of yet. Editor's note: Or maybe I just feel that it's important for Windows users to keep Linux and Mac OS X in mind. This is something I've done since WinInfo first started in 1995. Why would I be jealous of an OS? I don't make Windows. --Paul

HoTin -February 17, 2004