Print - WinHEC 2005: Day One Blog [Updated]

5:30 am
Microsoft has given out Longhorn build 5048 to showgoers as promised. I find it interesting that they provided the build the day before the show opens. This suggest that it isn't all that exciting to look at, an opinion which is backed up when you actually install the thing. I'll have a screenshot gallery available later today, but Neowin has a few shots available here.

My SuperSite WinHEC 2005 page is here.

I'm taking two PCs to the show, an HP widescreen notebook and (heh) an Apple Powerbook. I'm going to try and record as much as I can for future reference. These shows are always horribly busy for me. I'm going to try and have some fun this time, for a change.

Steve Bink arrived after what I'm sure was a long flight. I believe Tom Warren is here too, but haven't spoken with him yet.

Chris Wilson at the IEBlog over on MSDN has revealed a few more IE 7 details, so I'll need to update my IE 7 Preview: "The first couple of things they’ve done are support the alpha channel in PNG images [and] address CSS consistency problems ... we’re really excited that the beta release is almost here."

7:05 am
After fighting the insane Seattle traffic, I arrived at the Washington Convention Center, registered, and picked up the materials, which included a number of DVDs and CDs: Windows Server 2003 Standard x64 Edition, Microsoft Products and Tools DVD 1 (Windows Server 2003 SP1 DDK, Windows Server 2003 SP1 OS Symbols, Windows HCT 12.1 (SP1 Updates), Windows Server 2003 SP1 Updates), Microsoft Products and Tools DVD 2 (Longhorn 5048 x86 Pro/x64 Pro, Longhorn OS Updates, Windows Driver Kit (WDK), Longhorn SDK), and Microsoft Products and Tools DVD 3 (ISO images of Longhorn x86/x64).

I've tried installing Longhorn 5048 in Virtual PC 7 but it will not work. I'll try VMWare next and then just parition the laptop if it comes to that. Astonishing that Microsoft's own product doesn't work however.

They're letting people into the keynote theatre at 9:30 to 9:40, so I've got over an hour and a half to make this work.

A Microsoft source just told me how to enable DCE in Longhorn 5048. Turns out they couldn't take it out because it broke stuff, so they just hid it. I'll take pictures if I get it working.

11:45
The Gates keynote is over. Nothing dramatic over my ealier preview. However, I'd like to highlight one very important fact you'll not find out about elsewhere: That Longhorn UI that was shown off today was not the final UI, which will be much more impressive. We'll see that at the PDC this September, I'm told.

A few highlights from the keynote:

XP x64 and Windows Server 2003 x64 are now available.

Gates never said "640KB is enough for anyone."

Some auxiliary displays on 2006-7 era notebooks and Tablet PCs will feature color screens similar to those on Pocket PCs.

Gates showed off a 9-inch Tablet PC-like device that he called Ultra Mobile 2007. It won't be shipping until Longhorn.

Some Longhorn features will be back-ported to Win32 (and not be made available only through WinFX), which was unexpected. Very little was said about this, however.

Longhorn end-to-end experiences will include data visualization & organization (which was demonstrated), true mobility, "it just works," security, computing for everyone, sharing & collaboration, and digital entertainment everywhere.

The Longhorn demos weren't particularly spectacular. Microsoft should have noted that the UI wasn't the final one. OS X fans will jeer at the quality of the Longhorn display that was showed off, for example.

The Longhorn delivery timeline has been adjusted yet again: Beta 1 will ship this summer, followed by a second developer preview in September at the PDC. Beta 2 will ship after that, at which time Longhorn builds will be offered to the public. Longhorn is now due in time for Holiday 2006, and not for mid-2006 as previously planned.

This wasn't discussed at the keynote, but I've heard from sources that Office 12 will now ship before Longhorn in mid-2006. To meet this new deadline, all Longhorn-related features will be removed and shipped separately to Office 12 customers after Longhorn ships. You heard that here first.

2:00pm

I've posted a number of updates to the SuperSite. Not sure when they'll be live.

Neowin's Tom Warren is here.

The codename of that Ultra Mobile 2007 device is Haiku.

Longhorn build 5048 will not install on an empty virtual PC in either Virtual PC or VMWare, I've learned.

Go away stupid mac fan. Go back to Tiger, that's the real yawn. This is real computing... Tiger is for drawing pictures... Go draw a pretty picture for us then come back and show us okay? okay?

Hey, Paul. Give MS a break- Longhorn on VPC7 is probably a little way down their priority list... :-}

"'m taking two PCs to the show, an HP widescreen notebook and (heh) an Apple Powerbook." Hey Paul, I don't think it's windy in the building so you won't need the Apple Powerbook to keep you papers from flying away.

Doods, stop giving Paul a hard time at least he is out and about getting the info for us which means that we dont have to go to these boring shows....

You Mac-bashers in the comments, do you use both WinXP/2K3 and OS X? I do, and I'm MS-certified as well, and I support Win networks for a living. Try growing some brains before you post, MacOS X is not just used for "drawing pretty pictures" -- just ask the mission controllers on the NASA Cassini mission.

People tend to forget that Mac OS X is a form of UNIX. Don't start knocking UNIX!

Steve Jobs and all his faithful are fools. They would follow him into traffic... Macs are for artsy folk... Period.. Windows is for true computing...OSX has copied from windows... And then they cry "windows is copying." If it wasn't for Bill Gates and Adobe, Apple would have it's place in the computing museum.... Now it's only good for drawing pictures and making cool effects when you open windows.... Yeah, Unix is alright... That's the best part of OSX... Jobs finally realized his engineers were not smart enough to build their own kernal that was secure.... Dumb, rabid, mac fans, coming to a windows site, crying and begging that we dont pick on OSX.... LOL

You windows users are a really sad lot. Get informed first before ********, I use both platforms. Fact: 1984: Macintosh GUI, NO Command line 1995: Win '95, first version that actually resembles a GUI don't believe me, check the link: (thanks to the M$ cert poster) http://www.macworld.com/news/2005/04/20/cassini/index.php

I find it funny that you are commenting on dumb rabid mac fans that are begging that we don't pick on OS X when as far as we know, everyone who has commented so far is a Windows user. As a Windows user I am also curious why you think Windows is the only operating system for true computing? What makes everything else so ineffective at computing tasks? If you are making an informed judgement please enlighten us as to the source of this revelation.

Hey Paul, what do you mean when you say "it isn't all that exciting to look at" Do you mean that the UI is not pretty (or not better than XP)? Or do you mean that there's not much interesting or new under-the-hood or in terms of features yet? And fools, knock off the OS bashing. Let's stick to commenting on what's good and what's still needed in Longhorn and other MS products.

"Fact: 1984: Macintosh GUI, NO Command line 1995: Win '95, first version that actually resembles a GUI" So what you are saying is that Apple had an 11 year lead over Windows and still blew it because it overcharged users for 11 years. Wow. That was dumb.

(Windows sucks, OSX rules!) x (infinite) (OSX sucks, Windows rules!) x (infinite) equals End of Argument Now that that is out of the way, perhaps this comments section should be used for relevant and meaningful dialogue. Computing is always about purpose and appropriate tools. Operating systems are only tools. Purpose defines how we use tools to create something -- whether that something is a "pretty picture" or decoding the human genome. Both are relevant and meaningful. WinHEC will be interesting. And I argue strongly that Paul Thurrott's coverage will be the most balanced.

How does someone saying "Yawn" qualify them as a Mac fan? Did I miss something? As for "Macs are for artsy folks, period." comment. I don't even know where to start with that one. I can bet the submitter hasn't even touched a Mac, or done any research as to which verticals it is popular in. And I'm a work/program PC during the day, come home to a Mac at night type of guy, so let's not start with the "Only Mac zealots would..." line. It is possible for someone to like more than one platform...

I think it's sad some people don't have anything better to do than troll other people. Neither of you really believes what you're typing. You're just baiting people.

Although DCE could indeed stand for Dumb CrApple Evangelist (wouldn't it then be DCAE?) I'm betting Paul meant Desktop Composition Engine, which is supposed to be the super duper new part of Longhorn for putting things on your screen.

Jesus, I came here looking for loghorn news and all I find is a bunch or morons fighting like two year olds. When will you kids grow up and get a life!

Windows--for playing videogames, like The Sims. Or getting your computer exploited thanks to Internet Exploder or whatever other security exploit Microsoft has announced that week. Macs--for actually getting your work done and never worrying about a virus or trojan again. "It just works." Never underestimate the power of a monopoly when it comes to bad software. Windows users are living in a dream world where it's okay to run as an administrator account, get exploited through Internet Explorer, and upgrade their computers every twelve months just to boot the new version of Windows. In order to make themselves feel better, they bash some invented "market share" number, ignoring that market share numbers are derived from annual sales and not install base. Meanwhile, new versions of OS X actually get faster on older hardware, like an operating system should. Microsoft has you guys by the balls.

Complaints? Cry baby? Problem with Window security in the past and current? Forget all bad Window people. Switch to Mac OS X. Tiger eats fresh meat of Longhorn. Mac OS X is pinned under power of UNIX with pretty rich graphic you can't laugh. Window is quite ignorant. I will watch Longhorn. I will expect Mac OS X 10.5 in 2007 or so that further ahead of Longhorn. I am involved with developer with Apple. Is my langauge confusing you?

Guys, Microsoft really needs to hit one out of the park with Longhorn. Here's a picture I took at college during a break: http://www.pixelfreak.at/uploads/Image002.jpg It's all Apple laptops. Apple has taken over the education sector. Unfortunately, if the system requirements for Longhorn really do require upwards of 3ghz (jesus, why so high?), I don't see people feeling the need to upgrade from XP, which suits most people just fine if they have a firewall running. I certainly don't feel the need especially when all the APIs are being backported anyway. Apparently the only reason to upgrade to Longhorn will be for the GUI, which Microsoft has proven time and again is always ugly as hell and hard to use (Personalized Menus? What were they thinking?). In retrospect, Windows XP Luna looks embarrassing now. Aero Glass looks like it will be a shiny plastic version of Luna with OS X's window transitions. At least OS X keeps that stuff subtle enough that it's not annoying or repetitive. We'll see...but Tiger has taken a big bite out of Longhorn's bark. The funny part is that Microsoft talks up Longhorn in the present tense, ignoring that it's still a year and a half away! Tiger is out now. The big problem is that by the time fall of 2007 rolls around, Steve Jobs will be talking up the next OS X and its new features, and what will Microsoft do then? Announce the long-delayed Blackcomb that will mysteriously have the new OS X's features, just like Longhorn did? People are sick of Windows and the yearly PC ugprade cycle. They just want to be done with it and buy an iMac to use for five years. You can't use a PC from five years ago in this day and age (and you definitely won't be running Longhorn), but old Macs continue to run new OS X versions fine. It's obvious you get a better value from Apple in that department.

Well that’s the result of having one company make both the hardware and software.

I can't wait for Longhorn. I just watched the WINHEC video and I think it is great. My computers are ready to go. Thanks for the update Paul.

"People are sick of Windows and the yearly PC ugprade cycle" I usually upgrade every three years. "old Macs continue to run new OS X versions fine" Yeah right...

I SECOND THAT MOTION!! WHO NEEDS TO SEE ALL THESE CRAPPY READER COMMENTS. JUST GIVE ME INFO ABOUT WINHEC !

I used to be an avid PC user, I used both for work and play, but I fancied a change so I got myself an old G3 then a G4 powerbook. I was impressed with the whole system for a while, it seemed to be fabulous and offer everything I needed, a slick interface, stability and what not. After a year or so however, I am tired of the interface, sure it looks pretty and runs unix underneath but so what. It lacks many many things that Windows offers and as for the fanatics, they are a major turn off. Why is it that people can not have discussions about their favourite OS without reverting to childish flames and name calling. I would happily trade in my slick Powerbook for a decent Windows system. Whilst it can not be disputed that Longhorn is taking quite a while to get here, it affects the whole industry so it truly is pointless for people to throw the comparisons to OSX as that only affects a minute proportion of users. I work in a design studio where we use both PC's and Mac's, even the designers are continually frustrated by OSX. These people, the ones who Mac's are designed for could not care less about which OS they run, they simply want the best tools for their job. They all are begging me to get them PC's even though they have some nice G5 kit. Anyway, enough of the "my OS is better than you OS", let us read about the WinHEC and hear all about Longhorn.

If you want a true computing OS, then go with Linux. If you want a powerful graphics OS, go with a MAC. If you want games, go with Windows. Anyone who says that Windows is a "true computing" os, remove your thumb from your ..., start acting with some common sense, quit double talking about being fanatic, and SHUT UP! If you think that Windows works for computing, try running Oracle under Windows, and then on the same system running linux. Then, if you see something that has "comparable" performance, first congradulate yourself, second get your head examined, then call up Oracle to find out why the laws of causality cease to exist on your computer.

I told you Longhorn was coming Winter 2006 Paul, but I guess I end up owning you instead!

Yes, lets hear about longhorn... And we don't need MAC fans here every artile going Yawn... That's stupid, and then the windows guys get upset then the flame war starts..

The ever-sliding Longhorn timeline makes me wonder if (in addition to the sheer complexity of such a big project) Microsoft might have some projected level-of-hardware-installed-base that they're waiting for, in order for Longhorn to seem zippy-quick on even "lowe end" systems of the time. This isn't a big conspiracy theory; it's simply true that as the predominant OS maker, which competes primarily against its own installed base, releasing an upgrade that seems sluggish would be a PR failure. It's OK that it's more resource-hungry, as long as it makes use of those resources to give a favorable end-user experience. I'll be very curious to see the new Aero interface when it becomes available. I have to believe it's still undergoing substantial change; otherwise MS would have little to gain by not showing it off (even if the bits aren't included in the semi-public pre-releases). Unless they they're under the illusion that everyone will rush to copy Aero, but if that were the case they wouldn't be releasing much of it this coming summer. I wonder if MS is being "safe" by now targeting Holiday 2006, or if there's some chance that Longhorn might actually slip past that time? Regardless of one's opinions of Mac OS X, it's likely that 18-24 months from now will see the release of 10.5. Apple's not really a close competitor in most markets [speaking strictly on sales numbers here, rather than technology], but Microsoft still seems to be ceding mindshare and enthusiasm points to them. And to a lesser extent, some of the open source efforts. The comment "Well that’s the result of having one company make both the hardware and software" is interesting, mostly because it's difficult to see the correlation between features such as e.g. search (including dynamic folders, etc.), automator, desktop utilities, transparency, synchronization and the like having much to do with hardware. Neither Microsoft nor Apple make video cards, hard drives, network adapters, or many of the other compoents that comprise computers. Apple can certainly spec out their machines as desired, which gives theoretical boosts to things like battery life, and drastically limits the number of drivers that need to be developed, but really doesn't change anything at all about software product design, feature lists, GUI elements, search logic, or in fact much else that I can think of. The whole purpose of the HAL is to separate out *most* of Windows from the underlying hardware. I have no dount that when Longhorn is released it will have some impressive technologies; some of those will no doubt foster work-alikes/look-alikes (to the inevitable cry of "they're copying us!", much like we hear from various camps right now, directed the other way). The primary question on my mind is: "Will the 5-year wait have been worth the result?"

I'm the immediately-previous poster. Apologies in advance for the typos; I *really* need to learn to proofread *before* hitting the "Submit" button...

Come on guys... every MS release they promise all this stuff and never deliver... plus they said it would be out Mid-2006... and now we are looking at late-2006... TWO YEARS! I am just glad that as a Mac user a I am using a "current" OS... windows XP was release over 4 years ago... we still have another 2 years to go... AND PLEASE, do you REALLY think that Longhorn will improve security AT ALL!

Yeah, are you able to give more details on the "end-to-end experiences" and the demos? Or will you be posting those elsewhere? Given the constant slippage and based on what you've seen and heard at WinHEC today, Paul, do you think MS can really deliver by holiday 2006, or should I be making application development plans based on XP upgrades late (rather than mid) this year, and LH in mid-late 2007 instead?

Hey, I'm a Windows user and fan, but doesn't sound like much good news in the short-term. - Delay from mid to holiday 2006. - The mini-tablet sounds neat, but that's 2007 (two more years). - Need to wait til Sept. to see UI. - Office 12 shipping without LH makes LH schedule seem even more tentative. Even though the demos "weren't spectacular", was there something interesting in them? Hope there's something more tomorrow.

WinHec 1st day-- x64 is here! Longhorn is coming later in 32-bit and 64-bit versions(Q4'06); Driver and software developers are currently working overtime porting hardware and software to use x64 and Longhorn; New development tools are just around the corner; It is still early in this new era of truely powerful computing. 64 bit cores will power all manner of devices within a few years. Get involved as a developer, and you can make some money. Microsoft is investing more than ever on these new systems. You will be able to buy/build a 4-core, x64 workstation with dual SLI graphics, 16Gb memory, and terabytes of storage by the end of next month! Way cool! Newtek's Light wave has been ported to 64-bit-- expect a huge influence by Windows 64-bit OSs and AMD procs in the digital arts, and scientific computing arenas, as well as consumer-level PCs and portable electronics-- now, and well into the future.

Wish I was there, but I'm not so I had to settle to the MS Webcast. I liked what I saw, though I'm going to call the 'Ultra Mobile 2007' the 'Windows XP - PADD Edition'.

Woohoo!!! XP gets an gray theme and a picture of a building for wallpaper; let's call it Longhorn. 2 plus years of development and this is what you have to show for it? I wouldn't be throwing stones at Apple.

Wow, is this a windows site? I must have stumbled into some Mac cult fanboi site? What happened to the WINDOWS SUPER SITE?! The only reason Mac doesn’t have as many bugs and exploits are because is not as popular, don’t think so? Look at IE, popular = lots of bugs. Firefox, just starting, no bugs, Fire getting more popular, and then whoops, firefox really isn’t more secure, and it just hasn’t been exploited as much YET. So really the comments section of this site made me have a whole different view of this site, I no longer think that its a good place to come for WINDOWS info, and, the writer Paul, are you a windows fan, really. Ever since you did the Tiger OS update article now we got a bunch of Slashdot users (Mac's the best and is always going to be better because we have no WILD viruses) (with time and more popularity say good bye to that!) coming here because Slashdot did an article on your review. Thanks for the info on Longhorn, but lets turn the comments section off next time and lets be a little more windows sided on a WINDOWS SITE/EVENT.(wow doesn’t that make sense) (Note before the flames start, yes, I have used a Mac. The Mac was nice, but nothing to brag about. I don’t hate Macs, its just when I go to a windows site I expect to see the cool exciting features of windows, not a bunch of Mac fans saying how windows sucks, and the Windows users saying that the Mac sucks also shouldn’t even be talking about a Mac, were are and should be here to talk about WINDOWS and the future of it.) Period.

Hey guys - I just have to say that I am a serious Windows fan and have been for years. I really wondered what the deal was with these Mac people but after seeing how little MS is announcing here I'm starting to get pretty irritated. There's nothing new here. My Dell is loaded to the gills with third party firewall, anti-virus, several anti-spyware, third party browser - all just to try and feel safe. And sometimes this stuff (antivirus especially) takes down the whole OS. During the last two years of B-school I downloaded and ran Linux on and off and saw all this innovation - tabbed web browsing, multiple desktops, multiple windowing systems available - cool KDE features like "always keep [a window] on top. I mean, at the end of the day Windows makes sense because everyone else is using it, but what the hell is MS doing for us to innovate - and I mean in ways that really matter. And this week these Apple folks are releasing desktop search...why do we have to wait until the end of time to get the MOST important new feature EVERYONE wants! MS is making 80% margins on this OS and giving nothing back. I feel like I'm geting milked at this point! WHAT IS NEW HERE THAT WE CARE ABOUT? Sorry to rant, but I want to be a Microsoft fan and Gates et al are making it really hard for me when this little Apple company and a bunch open source guys are innovating circles around us.

I really do not believe any of you ranters are using your computers to do anything but screw around with your "widgets," and waste days posting crap to "chat" sites. Are the hard-working developers of your systems (Mac, or Windows) creating only toys for you children to play with? Well, then maybe the money you spend will ultimately allow Apple AND Microsoft to develope the systems we serious people use to do real work? I came to this particular blog to get some information/insight on the upcoming developments in 64-bit computing on the Windows platform, and the WinHEC conference-- what do I find but, yet again, a bunch of kids who care about nothing but bashing, and ranting about whos got the best computer system (Apple, or MicroSoft?)-- a pointless, and childish pursuit. I know people who use pocket calculators and are quite happy with them; others who still read newspapers; others who still use a pencil and paper from time to time; and others who use mainframe computers. Its what you do that is important-- learn to improve computer systems if you feel so upset by them, take a course in computer engineering, do something useful-- find some relevent information to post here, or don't post here!

Not jeer, just laugh. That's years of development and hype for a desktop that in it's big "unveiling", just looks pathetic. Read some of the stories recently about frustration on the Redmond campus at the "funk" they are in. This build of Longhorn is certainly a testament to that condition.

QUOTE: "The Longhorn demos weren't particularly spectacular. Microsoft should have noted that the UI wasn't the final one. OS X fans will jeer at the quality of the Longhorn display that was showed off, for example" QUESTION: Why would you care that OS X fans will jeer at the longhorn display?

I hope they change the Lonhorn theme because the one they have now is a seriously transparent copy of the latest Linspire (Linux) look (PCWorld, May 2005, page 54). This is ridiculous. There is nothing new and useful here. Personally I don't give a #$%^ about "like this OS better than that one" what I can about is - security - new features like a better browser, desktop search, etc - stability I'm not alone in these needs. Nothing I have heard says that Microsoft is addrressing what so many users care about. Seriously, these guys aren't even trying anymore.

RE: "- security - new features like a better browser, desktop search, etc - stability" Hmm, sounds like a Mac to me.

"AND PLEASE, do you REALLY think that Longhorn will improve security AT ALL! " Answer: Yes. Tiger OS isnt a major os, its a "cute" os. (Tiger is like a service pack with new icons). Longhorn Is a MAJOR os.

What is the point of all this. It's a site that reports Windows news - it's a Microsoft conference, where Paul can go and get -thats right- Windows news. He's reporting it here, so that those of us who are interested, can get the aforementioned news. Why then, is it being twisted into yet ANOTHER rather boring, tired attempt at bashing Microsoft, and painting Apple as the all amazing saviour? It's news, it's fairly plain and predictable news in this instance too, why all the ranting?

I can tell you right now why the comments site is full of Mac versus Windows: there's nothing new being announced to talk about. If there were, we'd all be excitedly talking about the new features. The only news here is another delay.

Quick, somebody needs to tell those PowerBook-toting rocket scientists at NASA (easily observed in any mission coverage) that they shouldn't be using toy Unix/Mac systems to run mission critical space missions !! ...Or maybe they know something YOU don't.

LOL. The Mars rovers have been lost due to a Windows Media Player update. Silly kids, Patcher XP is for gamez.

I use almost exclusively Windows, but let me get this straight: How many YEARS have they been working on this to arrive at today's "demo"!!??

Mac users: go to your corner. Windows users: go to your corner. Let's talk Longhorn. The following quote was made: WHAT is new that we can look forward to. Can someone PLEASE translate the announcements for me so I know what to be excited about.

"WHAT is new that we can look forward to. Can someone PLEASE translate the announcements for me so I know what to be excited about." The fact that you have to ask this question after presumably seeing pictures of/reading about today's unveiling should give you your answer. Trust your instincts. Nothing.

Be excited about 64-bit computing today! If you are a developer, or a system builder, prepare for the new 64-bit era. Longhorn will be offered in 32-bit, and 64-bit versions. It offers more intuitive methods of organizing/retrieving files; vector graphics, and "Metro" for a rich user experience, high quality printing on "Metro" capable printing sytems; etc....What happened today that is so important, is the release of x64-- paired with AMD's and Intel's procs, and the combined efforts many software and hardware vendors, a truely remarkable level of consumer-level computing is just beginning. Microsoft is unquestionably a powerhouse to be reckoned with when forging the future of the industry. 64-bit computing has begun!

saw the whole keynote streamed. gui and information organization features blow OSX out of the water, and this is not even a beta. I really enjoyed the full 3D icons with animations on the sample music store app. apple has nothing like it implemented or deployed (yet) till it compies it and claims it invented it. to sumarized the longhorn gui is a heck of a lot more than just some funky animations and PDF support. It is something developers can actually use. great stuff.

Okay, how is the GUI going to make our user experience better - can you tell us WHAT about the information organization is better than XPs?

Not to mention all the new security exploits! Cool 3D, tranlucent viruses!!! It ROX0RZ!!

How can anybody that says macs are toys or for kids when you have access to an entire Unix subsystem in the OS that kicks Windiws *** when it comes to the prerequisite complexity required of a geek; just damned ignorant bigots.

Paul, what do you mean by "Not sure when they'll be live..."? Do you have a delayed upload... or some kind of test server before you "go live"?

Longhorn, or 64-bit computing, for all the power they offer, are not to be relegated to use by only tech-heads-- the power allows the OS to be designed with greater levels of user friendliness than ever before. Longhorn is touted as being much more intuitive in operation-- even Grandma will find it more comfortable to use. Computers will only get more powerful, AND more useful to ordinary people as years go by. The problems with computers over the years have been the continuous need to keep them maintained-- generally only the computer savy have been able to keep their systems running in top form, and to benefit from the computer as a tool to be used in many areas of daily life. I think we are now beginning to see years of computer technology development culminate in newer systems that will deliver on many of the promises of computers made years ago--without having to be a computer nerd to get those benefits. Microsoft's huge outlay (and the partnerships with other companies)in .NET application services, Internet Explorer, Media PLayer, Media Center, Tablet PCs, Pocket PCs, and the new 64-bit processing committments, will soon (by the time of Longhorn) position Microsoft to integrate these technologies into the more user friendly, and "ubiquitous" computer devices of tomorrow. Everybody can be connected everywhere, at any time, to do all kinds of neat(and useful) things.

Now that sounds exciting - self maintaining systems? Dare we dream? That would be great. Have they previewed any of the self -maintaining stuff?

Windows is the past, get with the NOW, Mac OS X Tiger. Wake up Windows users, your ship is sinking fast with all it's holes.

Oh so the biggest improvements in LH will be MS following through on promises made in 1995? Got it... What the hell?! If anything interesting had been shown in that keynote, Thurrott would have told us about it 14987 times.. if THurrott the ultimate MS Groupie was disappointed.. yikes.. Okay.. saw the images.. very annoyed that everything looks like Safari.. YAWN! Seriously, I'm sure it will be a huge upgrade.. when it comes out in early 2007, but.. until then I have good news... The next Xbox will be coming out.. which will be very nice.. it should only cost about $300.. and it should be backwards compatible.. can that satiate all you IT PRO's for gaming.. ?? Now borrow, steal, rent a freakin Mac Mini for a MONTH.. and report back afterwards.. ideally it should plug into your current accessories.. (ps/2 switch notwithstanding).. do yourself a favour and get informed.. Bill Gates and his cronies have a monumental task.. get every piece of hardware to work on the same OS.. Until they find the Holy Grail, Mac users have everything they want (besides marketshare).. for God's sake.. at least try something... 30 million Mac users (who know XP) must like something about it.. enough to learn a whole new OS..

God, all of you are fighting over MAC or Windows, by golly, having a newer GUI, themes and all of that crap takes up more system memory and processor power....Screw Windows Longhorn and XP Get WINDOWS 2000, STILL HAS SUPPORT AND HAVE NEVER HAD IT CRASH ONCE!! The Best Windows OS Period.

Photoshop? Informed Mac users just use the X Window system and enjoy open source alternatives like GIMP. Now that's choice: KDE or Aqua. Unix / Linux ports or Carbon applications. The full GNU command line utilities (I use the GNU 'CP' more than the Unix!). Backwards compatible to OS 9.0 and before. And we can run just about anything Windows in virtual PC. Count 'em: that 5 operating systems' worth of software we can run. Mankind has never encoountered a more full choice operating system than OS X.

Macs are nice, but the hardware will still be behind. Can I have Direct X 10 (WGF 2.0), Multiple GPU's, Dual/Quad Core CPU's instead of the macs multicpu's, more than one buttoned mouse and PCI Express bus instead of PCI or AGP. Then there is the software. I would be missing so much software and not just games but other software that I depend on and that I am used to using. Thanks but no thanks, Longhorn will be better than the Macintosh and I don't have to upgrade and pay steve jobs even more money early as they fix a few bugs and add one feature and charge me 120 US dollars yearly for small upgrades. Thanks but no thanks. I don't need Apple to take me for a ride. The WinHec 2005 was great, I am sure we will know everything by this time next year. If I want to take a Mac to a spin, I can just download pear PC and call it a day. That is how awesome the PC is, I can do anything I want and I don't have no stupid limitations of just using photoshop, but I can use other less expensive programs as well if I want. PC is about choice, Macs arn't, it's that simple.

"Until they find the Holy Grail, Mac users have everything they want" You meen Microsoft wants to find Mary Magdalene?!?

"If I want to take a Mac to a spin, I can just download pear PC and call it a day. That is how awesome the PC is, I can do anything I want and I don't have no stupid limitations of just using photoshop, but I can use other less expensive programs as well if I want. PC is about choice, Macs arn't, it's that simple." But what if you wanted to ues windows on the Mac OS?!? the computer couldn't take it! I origianly thought (early 2002) that Blackcom was going to come out late 2003 and longhorn mid 2004!? And could we stop using "comming out this summer/winter" and actualy have a month name! Just wait till Yellow stone national park explods covering america with ash and then u guys will find your computer power useles.

"Windows XP Setup Simulator 1.0 Windows XP Setup Simulator is a program that teaches you how to install Windows XP, without having to worry you will mess up your hardware or software. It just simulates installing Windows XP as if it was the real setup. It reproduces every step exactly as it is in the real setup, and it does not restart your computer. This program can also be used as a guide for learning how to install Windows 2003, because the steps are very similar. The package also includes an e-book that explains every step of the Windows XP Setup and some other Windows XP Basics. You can also find the simulation with every step explained in several languages." -BINK.nu M$ now has a setup simulator to show all those people who cant install their OS... sounds like they are getting a bit desperate.

"If I want to take a Mac to a spin, I can just download pear PC and call it a day. That is how awesome the PC is" Funny, PearPC takes what, 10 minutes just to boot? Get real and stop trolling. I'm running Windows XP in Virtual PC on my Mac as I type this. :)

Macs are for drawing pretty pictures? Tell me, which operating system, OS X or Windows, comes with a UNIX shell? Next. You Windows fanboys are scared of UNIX.

"That is how awesome the PC is" Ahahaha! Yeah, that PC is soooo awesome. It can play videogames! Windows is for videogames, like the Sims. Aren't you due for a new security bulletin from Microsoft or a new trojan? Shouldn't you be off upgrading your PC every six months? After all, Windows Longwait is going to require upwards of 3ghz just to boot! Nice coding there, Microsoft. OS X continues to run on my old 500mhz G3 laptop, and gets FASTER with each release. Yeah, PCs are awesome all right. Is that why Microsoft is going with the PowerPC architecture in their next X-Box? Ahahahaha!

could you post the full weblink to billgates.mspx? I didn't find it on their page.

Good articles Paul. Shame about your message board. I'm not really a fan of Microsoft, but it is good to get info on the products that will affect our computing lives in the years to come. The Mac comments above are either from someone in Microsoft that gets a kick out of making Mac fans look silly, or by a Mac freak who finds friends and useful activities hard to come by.

why don't you all shut up and go watch the keynote http://www.microsoft.com/events/exe.../billgates.mspx where to skip: graphics: go to 1h3mins for a bit of the new graphics engine (very little) visualization via search (the new longhorn search): 1:19 3D rendering on windows 64 bit architecture. (lightwave demo) 0:26 SQL server 2005 64 bit edition performance on 64bit hardware (very impresive)

I posted the $ cat /var/ thing - I'm just kidding around. Common guys, lighten up. We're all computer nerds just having a good time.

It's been soooo long since a major Windows release... eek. Late 2006/early 2007? And to think we expected about two major releases by then, Longhorn and Blackomb. Indeed, they should change the codename just for the heck of it.

damn this is funny, not so long ago you windows dorks would not even have mentioned the Mac! Now damn near every other post was talkin about tiger and or the Mac, get a life you loosers. End your Mac envy and get one, your jealousy is reaching an all time high and by the way did I mention that you are dorks.

I'm glad thats not the final UI in gates's keynote...its pretty unattractive. The only thing thats cool are those translucent title bars, athough I can only imagine they are distracting and hard to read.

For anybody interested, you can see the whole keynote here (1hr 43min): http://www.microsoft.com/events/executives/billgates.mspx

"damn this is funny, not so long ago you windows dorks would not even have mentioned the Mac! Now damn near every other post was talkin about tiger and or the Mac, get a life you loosers. End your Mac envy and get one, your jealousy is reaching an all time high and by the way did I mention that you are dorks." Hmmm, I wounder who the dork is? A Mac fanatic coming to a windowsitpro site and posts flameings all over the site. That's makes you both stupid and a dork.

Whining Windows user: "Please, please, turn off the comments" LOL. Embarrasing isn't. Longhorn blows and you know it. hahaha. Get a real OS....4/29/05....Tiger.....iiiiiiit's GREAT!!!

I like it how this whole page is just "I'm a Mac user, you Widows idiots can't stop talking about MacOS." "Urrr, I'm a Windows user, you Mac users are Gay." Not even like one post is actually on-topic.

Paul is a smart business guy. He gets all these ppl to his blog. more hits...more ppl willing to put ads on his site. I use both OSx & Windows So Apple & Microsoft wins. Microsoft doesnt have to do a thing. They have all the $$$. Anyway, Microsoft can make good software, they're just stuck having to support all these OEMs that make junk and have to rely on code that not only allow features to be added, but viruses too. The only reason Apple stuff works so well is because of Hard/Software integration. That's all it is... Tiger will be interesting. Longhorn will be too. That's my boring, wordy comment. Exactly what is Paul's credentials regarding Windows & Mac anyway...

What the hell, whoever wrote this comment script apparently needs to be taught the meaning of the words, "Carriage return"!

Longhorn VAPOR vs. Tiger REALITY. How you idiots could buy in to pre-canned movies & demo hype over a year & a half away to a shipping product is a testimonial to your ignorance. Enjoy it, cause the .WMA stream is all you got. ===================== Longhorn = VAPOR? That's funny, seeing as how I'm running Longhorn 5048 at this moment, and I have the visual effects turned on. They run just as fast as they do in the WinHEC keynote video. Mind you, they did try to hide the effects in the OS until they release the final UI in September, but with a registry key here, a driver there, and start a system service. . and bingo, visual effects just like in the VAPORWARE video you referenced. It shouldn't be surprising really. It's revolutionary, it just looks pretty. Finally, here's a comment for you 15 year old Apple fanboys. If you are going to troll a Windows news site, at least try to sound intelligent? >"damn this is funny, not so long ago you >windows dorks would not even have mentioned the >Mac! Now damn near every other post was talkin >about tiger and or the Mac, get a life >you loosers. End your Mac envy and get one, >your jealousy is reaching an all time high and >by the way did I mention that you are dorks" Yeah, you tell 'em Sling Blade!

You Patchers are too much. I now know that I've seen the most pitiful of the pitiful -- a bunch of Patchers flailing about like goldfish dumped from the tank. Really, you're all like kids who got separated from their mommies at the amusement park. "Ohmygosh, Microsoft is late! Microsoft is late! What'll I dooooo? Mommmmmyyyyyyy!!!!" Look, Windows had its time, but now it's over. Come into the light, all you Patchers.

Yah, I love it how so many tech's in the know have said repeatedly that writing a virus for Windows (scale of 1 to 10, with 10 the most difficult) is like a 1.5 -- while for OS X that number is about a 9! You guys just won't get it: No one who uses a Mac really gives a flying f**k WHAT you use on your computers. USE your corrupted little Windows builds. Download your daily viruses and exploits. Turn over your personal information to the spyware crackers. WE DON'T CARE!!! Because the more CRAP you Patchers wanna deal with, the better it makes those of us using OS X look -- and FEEL! I mean really, maybe it's finally time to give it up. The writing is on the wall. Microsoft has taken you Patchers, and much of the sheep in the world, on one of the biggest sucker rides in history. Well, the ride's about to end, and even people like Thurrott can sense it. You'll have to forgive us a little, because when you finally switch, we'll very clearly be able to tell the bandwagoners who were late to the Mac party from the long-time OS X users -- and we're going to be giving you a fair amount of "I told you so" for the first couple of years on your new Macs. All in good fun, of course. No, we don't care what you use -- but for your own mental health and the health of the entire computing world, stop being Patchers! Grab a Tiger by the tail.

"You guys just won't get it: No one who uses a Mac really gives a flying f**k WHAT you use on your computers." So, please tell me, why are you here? ;)

This is awesome!!! Apple Mac users flocking to a Windows site AND participating in lively debate. WOW!! This must be very encouraging for the Longhorn team at Microsoft. All that we need to do now is to take some of the rough boorish edges off the Mac converts. They still think they are chatting to each other - with their foul language and childish teasing.

Not here to read about all the petty griping and OS envy of one group or another. I would just like to hear about the current technology behind LH. I have used both Mac and PC products and like them both. OSX does offer some great things and that is understandable considering they also make their own hardware and don't have to worry about millions of different hardware combinations out there. It is a very nice OS and having UNIX behind it is a great plus. Windows is also a great OS considering everything it has to consider (hardware configurations, drivers, etc) So many applications and games run on it that it is hard to ignore. I say kudos to both companies for trying to push the computing world further and harder than ever before. The only thing that can come out of fierce competition (and not childish name calling) is better OS's, better experiences, and happier end users for both camps.

I'm running Tiger. I don't think I need to explain how good I feel right now. sorry for those missing out :/

Guys, hate to say it, but the constant never-ending pattern of anything related to any operating system degenerating into a debate about OS preference is getting really old. It betrays the lack of intelligence of so many. Where on this page did it say 'Let's have a discussion about Tiger/Longhorn?' or 'Linux? Your Thoughts?' Comments should centre on Paul's Blog, on the conference, on the Longhorn OS, etc. It's like listening to a high-school book discussion with all those kids who 'almost got the point' and discussed extraneous cliche topics instead of addressing the essential core of the matter. In other words: you look like retards blowing smoke out your ***. Get some focus.

I was relieved to read that it wasn't the final UI but I suspected as much after seeing other SS's of the OS in the past. I just question why MS didn't provide that interface for WinHEC. Mental note: become friends with paul so he can share some of those "materials" Thanks for the blog Paul. Keep up the reporting!

Windows is only good for office productivity and I don't do office work (because I'm not a secretary)! Get a real computer, get a Mac!!

PCWorld.com headlines today: Widespread Internet Attack Cripples PCs with Spyware WinHEC: Microsoft Delays Palladium Security Plan I use all 3 - XP, OS X and Linux. It's fun to skate across all of them and each has its pros and cons but how anyone can be a "fan" of Windows and passionately defend the platform baffles me given the contrast between the profitabilit and the lack of security and innovation.

> how anyone can be a "fan" of Windows and passionately defend the platform baffles me given the contrast between the profitabilit and the lack of security and innovation. I've been running Windows XP on various systems since the day it came out. I have no crashes, no viruses, no spyware, no security issues. Just a solid, reliable OS that works. Why would I not be a fan of that? It beats paying $129 every so often so Stevie can buy more black turtlenecks.

WOW! After reading all the immaturity by both Mac and Windows users, I came to the conclusion "I don't care". I use a Mac, I love my Mac. If you use Windows, cool, I don't give a ****. All this crap boils down to is cheering on your favorite team. Woo-Hoo. I just hope that both platforms keep innovating and keeping each other honest…

Well, I'll return to this site on friday, after having actually used Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger and give you sonme feedback on features that Windows may copy in the future, so you can get an idea how Longhorn may work. You will return to this site hoping that you'll get some tidbit of information for vaporware.

Get a real computer, get a Mac!! Yes, Get your *** reamed by Steve's sandpaper iDildo.

Yawn is right! LOL, Tiger is out Friday: Solid UNIX core with Apple innovations Microsoft will be copying for the next decade.

All you Windows apologists now saying that Macs are only good for "artists" and not "real" computing...are the sons and daughters of the people who said that GUIs and the mouse were "toys" and not for "real" computing...cycle continues... innovators and explorers vs. the screaming masses and followers.

Mmmm... Yummy new Windoze viruses! You IT schleps can suck the sweat off my _____. It's a statistical fact that UNIX and LINUX provide superior computing benefits. Mac users don't need you or your ilk - never did, never will. Now go back to maintaining your legacy NT systems without support from the mothership. Fools.

Companies suffer from the attack in a number of ways. First, the Internet connection for anyone using the poisoned DNS server--often the entire company in the case of smaller businesses--is completely disrupted. All Web traffic and e-mail trying to go to any .com site gets hijacked for as long as the DNS server remains compromised. Even after the DNS server is fixed, the company has to clean the adware and spyware from any affected computers, an onerous task that can keep IT people like David Parsons, who supports about 7000 people in his help-desk job at a Boston hospital, extremely busy. Parsons says his hospital was "slammed for about two days straight" by the DNS poisoning attacks starting March 29. Dunham conservatively estimates that 3000 DNS servers at a range of U.S. companies, including at least two with more than 8000 employees, were compromised over the past month due to the ignorant Wintel-centric blather emanating from their IT departments.

Windows was originally a GUI for DOS. http://www.michael-prokop.at/images/win1_big.png (not a pretty gone obviously). So why would Windows 95 be the first windows version with a GUI? Windows has always had a GUI and in the early days it was nothing more than a just GUI. Apple didn't invent GUI's by the way. Xerox did. I do not hate Mac's or anything... just wanted to set that this straight.

You guys don't believe it,but there are benchmarks and articles proving it macs get faster each upgrade.If you're not "artsy folk" or have no creativity you might as well be stupid,because creativity is needed.Bill gates ex actually said how he looked up to Steve Jobs when they were together.I guess he decided to take it one step further and take aspects of the mac(which is obviously true)and make a knockoff to sell to the biggest PC maker at the time:IBM.Apple could do everything.They didn't need help.M$ did,so they swiped IBM.Some of you need to just admit that mac OSX is good,and that M$ makes not so good to bad software all the time,including windoze.I do own a PC also.

I was actually going to make a comment about the Keynote, since my brother-in-law was giving me pretty much hour-by-hour updates on what was going on (he's at the conference). But, honestly, after reading through this morass of comments, I'm just going to paste the text of another "Anonymous" a few spots up -- I think it deserves to be repeated (Perhaps without the ***, but, you take the good with the bad) Guys, hate to say it, but the constant never-ending pattern of anything related to any operating system degenerating into a debate about OS preference is getting really old. It betrays the lack of intelligence of so many. Where on this page did it say 'Let's have a discussion about Tiger/Longhorn?' or 'Linux? Your Thoughts?' Comments should centre on Paul's Blog, on the conference, on the Longhorn OS, etc. It's like listening to a high-school book discussion with all those kids who 'almost got the point' and discussed extraneous cliche topics instead of addressing the essential core of the matter. In other words: you look like retards blowing smoke out your ***. Get some focus. _____ And that's it in a nutshell. Guys, don't turn this place into cnet or zdnet boards. And, yeah, I acknowledge that I'm not contributing by focusing on this issue ("take your own advice") but this needs to be said. Toodles A multiplatform user

"old Macs continue to run new OS X versions fine yeah right..." My sisters use Panther daily on two 1997 beige 233mhz G3 PowerMacs. I expect Tiger to work even better... (education discount $67, yummy) I'm curious... what new features will Office 12 bring?

First off, this article is a good article! now to the flame war... WOW!!! WOW!!! Unbelievable!!! Apple copies MS! MS copies Apple! Consumers of both platforms benefit! Why don't you realize that competition between both platforms as well as others is GOOD for you!!! I use both platforms. Whenever Apple releases a new OS, Windows users make some freeware app to copy then MS copies it later. Two years after that, Apple takes something from Windows. No matter what, we as consumers win! Can't you just be grateful? To the mac users, check the sites. How many times does Apple buy out a company with a good product and Apple-ize it? (think FCP, and others). How about the "dashboard/widgets" scandal? Who makes a free RA client? Not Apple but MICROSOFT!!! To Windows users, how many times does MS buy out some company (think Bungie, Connectix) or copy from other companies? They both do so, but you know who wins in the end? We do as consumers!!! Don't hate, celebrate, yo. Word!

I agree with Anonymous User... I've never used OS X myself because Macs are just too expensive and no one I know has it so I can't try it out on a friends computer - so I don't bash it. I don't think that it would suit me, but I know it is a very good choice of Operating System for some people. (Though if the demos in Bill Gates' keynote were for real, it seems 64bit Windows could possibly steal some of that market from OS X, but like I said, I've never used OS X so I don't know if that's correct). I used to bash Linux a bit, but that was after I had tried it out a few times and been extremely frustrated every time. I have to use it at work now though, so I've gotten used to it, and while I still very much prefer Windows, I can see some areas where Windows could learn from Unix, and I've even installed Windows versions of some popular Unix tools on all my computers now (eg Vim - great editor, I don't know why I didn't believe all those people who told me so a long time ago). The good thing about Microsoft though, is that they do learn from their competitors. Some people call it copying and criticise Microsoft for it, but their customers see features in a competitors product that they like and tell Microsoft that they want it, so Microsoft go ahead and implement a similar feature, many times making it better, sometimes doing a poor job.

Oops, didn't mean to hit submit yet. I just read over what I'd written so far and thought, yep that's fine and then automatically hit the submit button. Anyway, on to the actual comments about the article and Bill's keynote. I'm actually in the middle of watching Bill Gates' keynote speech which you can get from his video page here: http://www.microsoft.com/events/executives/billgates.mspx if you're interested. So far there's been a lot of talk about x64, which I'm moderately interested in, tablet PC and small form factor PC's which I'm not really interested in at all at the moment (I carry my laptop with me everywhere I go), and it's just starting to get into the really good stuff about Longhorn. I was a bit disappointed to read what Paul said above about not being able to install the new build in a virtual machine, but I'm sure that by the time I manage to get my hands on a copy, people will have figured out how to do it. One of the interesting things about Longhorn that I've seen so far in the video which I think Paul didn't mention, was that some sections of the Operating System related to the driver model (ie what a lot of the attendees are very interested in) have already been locked down. As far as I know, this is much ealier than it happened for previous releases of Windows and it should be a good thing for immediate driver availability when Longhorn is released and also for stability. Ok, I think that's all for now. As always, keep us informed Paul :).

i didn't have any trouble running it in vmware (don't forget to install the vmware tools when you're done)

Stop the war! And, by the way, don't forget who came up with the Virtual PC for Mac! American Megatrends, Inc, and then Microsoft took them over. And you are rating THE ARTICLE, NOT THE OPERATING SYSTEM!!!

Wow, you windows zealots sure are dumb. Windows is good for "true computing" is it? What exactly is "true computing"? Please, enlighten me. Is it crashing and burning like a typical windows box does? I work at an insurance company that is NOTHING but windows machines and there are so many problems with them it is insane. No matter what manufacturer they come from, there is always a problem. Just face it, windows is crap. It always has been and always will be. You can have fun with your $300 machine that is 'super 1337' and I'll take my rock solid Powermac anyday. Don't be pissy because your OS of choice is a bloated, vapor-full, piece of crap.

"And, by the way, don't forget who came up with the Virtual PC for Mac! American Megatrends, Inc, and then Microsoft took them over" What are you talking about? American Megatrends is a BIOS supplier... Connectix is the company that created VPC... get your facts straight.

I don't know what all this asinine arguing is. One OS (or tool) IDIOTS! has an indefensible file system core - registry and is internet useless, the other does not and is therefore internet useful (there's your COMPUTING morons!)

The platform is limited by the company that backs it. Jobs can't be trust: he's an enemy of basic liberties and he lies to his own customers. If Apple were MS's size, we'd be in serious trouble, and not just in computing. How can these Mac nuts wave the Apple flag, knowing what it represents?

All you OS zealots crack me up. Ya know, there are still tons of people who'll swear that the only _real_ OS for "True Computing" (as though processing one set of binary strings were somehow different or more important than any other) was the Amiga. It's all right though, because you'll all have nothing to do in the next few years, and then I won't have to hear any of this crap anymore. Mark my words; the day is soon coming when there won't _be_ an OS to speak of at all from _any_ manufacturer. All devices - from your graphical interface to your cell phone, to your car, to your freaking oven - will communicate directly, and negotiate transactions amongst themselves without the questionable "benefit" of a centralized processing structure. The infrastructure is in place, and the first rudimentary applications will begin appearing shortly (in fact, already have), although I won’t actually expect any of you dweebs to be able to recognize them for what they are. We all know (well, those of us capable of rational thought) that the fastest way to the bankruptcy courts is to spend all your energy maintaining a death grip on an increasing share of a shrinking market, so if you can't see this coming up Sixth Avenue, good luck (and good riddance) to all you buggy whip makers. Morons.

Boy Paul, you sure can get the sh1t stirred can't you? This is like watching a tennis game. I love it! If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice...