Reader Comments

WINFS IS DEAD! AHAHAHAHAHA! All future betas are cancelled! http://blogs.msdn.com/winfs/ Microsoft, the company that lies about features then cancels them later. When is Vista coming again? First quarter of 2007 now? Company is DYING. All the execs are jumping ship. God, even Intel is now in bed with Apple.

Oh, I forgot my trademark: Have fun waiting mid-2007 to get a minor update to your six year old operating system. Meanwhile, I'll be using a clean, modern operating system on modern hardware that doesn't rely on 25 year old BIOS technology to go into sleep mode. No wonder analysts are predicting a Mac market share explosion this year, particularly in MacBook sales. We've already got 15% worldwide install base...it's only a matter of time before you all see the light and buy a Mac too. They dual-boot to Windows, so you still get to play your goofy shooting games. Windows is for playing little videogames like The Sims, while OS X is for getting serious work done.

"OS X is for getting serious work done." Are you on Windows at the moment, or are you calling your trolling work?

"Are you on Windows at the moment, or are you calling your trolling work?" Nice try, but criticizing Microsoft for this latest HUGE gaffe isn't trolling. You guys won't be getting a relational database file system, as Microsoft has promised you for the last half-decade. Are you going to call them on their lie? More importantly, since Apple shipped CoreData in OS X Tiger, there's a high probability they'll be using the technology to implement their own relational database filesystem in OS X Leopard. Do you realize how humiliating it will be for you guys to have Apple kick dirt in Microsoft's face yet again?

Hey guys, you can still have a content indexed file system in Windows. Just use Apple's Spotlight. Here I'm naturally assuming everyone will own a Macbook and be running Windows in a VM (in Lion or Parallels). In that case, as long as the disks are shared, you can just content index the Windows files in Mac OS X. Problem solved!

"Hey guys, you can still have a content indexed file system in Windows." Yes. Turn on Indexing Service, which was released in 1997 as part of the NT Option Pack and part of the OS since Windows 2000. Next?

"Are you going to call them on their lie?" Clarification: Since you obviously did not objectively read the article, let me explain in simple words that you can understand: WinFS will exist. It will not ship as a separate product. It will be combined with other products. Eventually, it will replace the current file system, but the development will take more time. Do I need to repeat? "Oh, I forgot my trademark: Have fun waiting mid-2007 to get a minor update to your six year old operating system." Yes, and I need to repeat my trademark: bonch, have fun waiting mid-2007 to get a minor update to your six year old operating system (known as OS 10)." "More importantly, since Apple shipped CoreData in OS X Tiger, there's a high probability they'll be using the technology to implement their own relational database filesystem in OS X Leopard." Yes, and OS 10.5 will enable pigs to fly, time to be slowed, and will do your household chores. Its ALL A RUMOR!!!! Maybe it will be, maybe not. Apple never lets its users know all the features in its next $129 yearly service pack. On topic, I hope this build will show positive changes in the UAP. MS was demoeing some nice improvements for RC1, but I am hoping it is in this build. With all its shortcomings, Vista will be the most advanced,secure (I hope!), modern operating system on the market when it is released, IMO.

It will be interesting to see what the delta is between builds. For the time being I'm pretty happy with windows 2000 R2 (aka Windows XP) If it looks like Vista isn't going to cut the mustard, I might just install Windows Server 2003 R2 and configure it as a workstation. Even the 32bit version supports 4GB of RAM, which is useful when doing data mining.

"Yes. Turn on Indexing Service, which was released in 1997 as part of the NT Option Pack and part of the OS since Windows 2000." That's not metadata indexing. Next.

"Clarification: Since you obviously did not objectively read the article, let me explain in simple words that you can understand: WinFS will exist." No, it will not. WinFS will instead be rolled into SQL Server, and Windows Vista will not be getting a relational database filesystem, which is what WinFS stood for--Windows Future Storage. The Microsoft fanbois are in total denial! This is HILARIOUS! "Eventually, it will replace the current file system, but the development will take more time." No, it won't replace the current file system. It will not be released as a separate technology and will instead be in SQL Server. You guys got gypped by the lying Microsoft hype machine again.

"That's not metadata indexing." First of all, your original comment referred to "content indexed file system", not "metadata indexed". Indexing Service handles metadata as well. "Indexing Service 3.0 includes the following new features in Windows XP and later: Media property sets that enable you to query for media properties in queries that use the OLE DB Provide for Indexing Service. The media property sets include properties for audio, video, music, image, and digital rights management." See: http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/en-us/indexsrv/html/ixintro_24og.asp?frame=true Take a look at the builtin metadata that Indexing Service supports on XP: everything from file modification dates, to audio sample rates, to music album name: http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/en-us/indexsrv/html/ixrefint_7wc3.asp?frame=true

Has anyone looked at Paul's article discussing this post-beta 2 build? If you haven't, go take a look and pull up the screenshot he took of the start menu. Look on the left side: Every single item with the exception of "Internet Explorer" and "Welcome Center" starts with Windows. Windows DVD Maker Windows Mail Windows Photo Gallery Windows Meeting Space Windows Media Center Windows Media Player This is one of the things that has always irked me about MS. Their need to plaster titles and copyright/trademark symbols everywhere. It's as if they think I'll forget which operating system I'm using when I open Media Player. What in the world is wrong with just "Mail" "Media Player" "Photo Gallery" "Meeting Space" and "DVD Maker"? And really, I suppose I should just be content that the title isn't "Windows (R) Media Player (R) Professional Edition 2006 (TM)," but still, tacking "windows" in front of every application's name just makes it more work to select that application. Not to mention it just adds text to menus and titles, making the interface appear that much more cluttered. Microsoft isn't the only company guilty of this, either. Adobe and Symantec come to mind right off the bat. I'm sure there's others. And yes, I realize that Apple likes to add "i" to things, but iPhoto is a lot less obtuse than "Apple Photo Gallery." And many of their apps are just beautifully simple. "Mail" "Safari" "Address Book" etc. I wish other companies would copy this.

Just want to clarify - the reason I referenced Paul's screenshot is that when you see all those Apps stacked together like that in the start menu, you can really see how useless it is to tack "Windows" on the front of every name. It just takes up space and makes you have to read more text to get to the item you want. The start menu in that screenshot would look a lot less "busy" if you took out the word "windows" from every application's name. (Except Windows Update, which makes sense.)

"the reason I referenced Paul's screenshot is that when you see all those Apps stacked together like that in the start menu, you can really see how useless it is to tack "Windows" on the front of every name." I agree. At least it's better than "Windows Live Mail Desktop Beta."

NateB2, you seem to have been right about Vista. Microsoft does seem to have quietly working on a better build when they released Beta2. Based on Paul's initial review (http://www.winsupersite.com/showcase/winvista_5465_gallery_01.asp), it seems like MS is back on track.

Putting "Windows" in front of every app annoys me too. MS seems to be listening more to users lately; maybe if enough of us complain to them, then they will remove it. :-)

"Vista will be the most advanced,secure (I hope!), modern operating system on the market when it is released, IMO." Validate this oppinion then with a little expertise. What experience do you have with Fedora? How long have you been using Solaris? What current version of Mac OS X do you have, and how long have you been a user? To what can you make this claim, I hope you have experience and expertise as a serious cross-platform user who knows this field in and out before stating such a claim. If so knowledgable about this field and all it's systems from different companies, there would be no need to hope. Unless of course you're basing this on sheer bias alone.

"at least it's better than 'Windows Live Mail Desktop Beta'" Ha, don't even get me started on the "Windows Live" idiocy. It boggles my mind that some moron got PAID to come up with that brand name.

I just installed the latest build of Vista and I have to agree with Paul's review - this is what Vista Beta 2 should have been. The amazing thing about these later builds is that everything seems to "just work." Drivers automatically install from Windows Update, configuring networks require 1 step, within 5 seconds of logging in, the system is done booting, performance is excellent, and the UAP has been drastically improved. "Validate this oppinion then with a little expertise." I have used the Mac OS back to System 7.0, and although I do not currently own a Mac, I regularily converse with Mac users and even fix problems with OS 10 on other users' computers (Mainly networking issues between Mac and Windows). I have played around with various flavors of Linux. I have the latest builds of Vista installed on my desktop and on my laptop. I have used Windows starting with Windows 3.1. Regarding security with Vista, we will see what happens when it is released, but I will be very surprised if many viruses are written for Vista within the first year.

"No, it won't replace the current file system. It will not be released as a separate technology and will instead be in SQL Server." It will not be named WinFS, but MS will release another filesystem sometime in the future. WinFS had major performance issues, so maybe MS realized that the current method they were using was not going to acheive the performance they were looking for. "You guys got gypped by the lying Microsoft hype machine again." Apple never does this. They always tell the truth about everything. Right, bonch?

"The Microsoft fanbois are in total denial! This is HILARIOUS!" Actually, it is the opposite way around. "No, it won't replace the current file system. It will not be released as a separate technology" Read this: "WinFS hasn't died at all, but is actually being rolled into SQL Server and a new project that's under development." You can read this here: (http://scobleizer.wordpress.com/2006/06/25/has-microsoft-changed-winfs-post-getting-questioned-internally/)

Indexing in ANY OS File System is a HUGE mistake. The so called solutions architects who forced developers into coding it, lacked massive vision! To allow user metadata into an indexed file system is even worse. ALL features of indexing are turned OFF on all the networks I handle, for reasons of perfomance. There is plenty of throughput occuring on a network, without adding garbage indexes to the fray. If you really need to find something, there are much more performing ways to obtain the data you need. Indexing is no solution.