On Friday, Microsoft revealed through a corporate blog that it will not deliver its next-generation storage engine, WinFS, as a separate product as previously planned. Instead, the software giant will ship WinFS technologies as part of other upcoming products, such as the next version of SQL Server, codenamed Katmai.

"We are not pursuing a separate delivery of WinFS, including the previously planned Beta 2 release," Quentin Clark, a member of the WinFS team, wrote in the WinFS Team Blog. "With most of our effort now working towards productizing mature aspects of the WinFS project into SQL and ADO.NET, we do not need to deliver a separate WinFS offering."

According to Clark, WinFS work is ongoing at Microsoft. All that's changing is the packaging: Instead of shipping a WinFS deliverable that users could install on client and server versions of Windows, mature WinFS technologies will be delivered in the near future, while less mature portions will come later.

This isn't the first major change to the WinFS schedule. Originally promised as part of Windows Vista, Microsoft last year delayed the WinFS release until Longhorn Server's 2007 launch, promising that it would be integrated with Windows at a later date. Now, it's unclear when or if that will happen. But Clark suggests that work will continue. "Windows will continue to adopt work as it's ready," he wrote. "We will continue working the innovations, and as things mature they will find their way into the right product experiences--Windows and otherwise."

Thanks to Steven Bink for tipping me off to this story.

Reader Comments

AHAHAHAHAHAHA! *takes deep breath* AHAHAHAHAHAAHAA! So, clearly, not only does Microsoft possess no creative aesthetic whatsoever (as evidenced by their hideously ugly user interfaces and braindead design decisions--hello, Windows key dumping you to desktop in fullscreen mode), but they absolutely lack the engineering talent to get anything done. It will be hilarious watching the Microsoft fanboys defending this company, like victims of Stockholm Syndrome. This company has been promising you things for seven years now, and they never deliver. They LIED to you. And you will defend it. You will defend their slow, bloated Windows codebase. You will defend the rampant insecurity. You will defend the blatant cloning of superior innovators. You will defend the fact you're getting something that barely matches the feature set of OS X Tiger from April of 2005! Windows Vista is shaping up to be a disaster in the making, truly on the level of Windows ME. I predict a massive flop for this bloated beast, as do all the analysts. Hardware sales aren't expected to take off when Vista is released, as Microsoft missed the buying cycle. Beta 2 was an underwhelming, buggy mess. And there are rumblings that Vista will miss January of 2007 and be delayed again. This MUST be why MarkZ left Microsoft recently, which neither he nor Microsoft would comment publicly on. He must have seen the writing on the wall here and realized Microsoft is on its way out, a dying company that has become a worse IBM than IBM. Seriously, guys, buy a Mac. You can dual-boot to Windows to keep your games and other old necessities, but for the real work you can use an OS that's kept constantly modern and up-to-date. There's just no reason at all anymore to keep buying PCs and be stuck with the dwindling Windows disaster.

I left out the best part which PROVES Microsoft lies to you. Just two weeks ago, they were demoing WinFS at TechEd, and before that they were listing job postings. Read more here (by the way, I love how Microsoft STOLE the idea from Apple to use the address bar as a progress bar): http://www.osreview.com/2006/06/24/the-sad-tale-of-winfs-and-the-vista-user-experience/ To quote: ---- Once again it seems Microsoft has forgotten about the users in favor of “developers, developers, developers”. The most shocking part of it all is how quickly they forgot about us. Just 2 weeks ago they were showing off the new WinFS beta 2 bits at TechED. A few weeks before that, they publicized a series of job postings on the WinFS blog while drumming up talk of Project Orange, their “The killer app for getting users organized”. I’m sure developers might feel somewhat warm about the whole situation but as a user I’m beyond irritated. It all started when WinFS was stripped from Longhorn in 2004. I was slightly comforted in 2005 when Microsoft showed us the user experience they promised would still work without WinFS. The file browser would allow navigation and organization by keywords, authors, ratings, and other metadata. Soon after that, Microsoft stripped that metaphor from Longhorn claiming that users found it too confusing. Ironically, this same metaphor is used daily by millions of people in iTunes, Windows Media Player, and various other “library-based” software products without much problem. Microsoft even uses the same metaphor and interface in their new Windows Photo Gallery in Vista. At that point I was more than a little disgusted but using the Vista Document Explorer was still a huge step up from XP’s Explorer for many reasons. Most important was the ability to tag documents and edit metadata right in the preview pane. This was clearly the simplest yet useful improvement they could have made. Soon thereafter Microsoft removed this feature as well.

It should be noted that the Finder in OS X Leopard is rumored to allow you full metadata editing right in the window ala iTunes, so that's yet another leapfrog Apple will be making over the crappy, antiquated XP-like interfaces Microsoft will be shipping in Windows Vista.

Full metadata editing like the kind Microsoft created in early versions of Longhorn, then dropped? Just because the editing is not in the latest build of Vista doesn't mean that Apple isn't completely ripping off Microsoft's idea.

"Full metadata editing like the kind Microsoft created in early versions of Longhorn, then dropped? Just because the editing is not in the latest build of Vista doesn't mean that Apple isn't completely ripping off Microsoft's idea." AHAHAHAHA! So now because Microsoft once had it in an old, buggy alpha, that means Apple is ripping them off? Are you seriously saying all you have left to hold onto is to reference some one-time Longhorn alpha build long ago? HELLO, ITUNES! Apple's new Finder interface will allow you to edit metadata attributes much the way you edit them right in the iTunes window. Apple started this revolution, and they're going to finish it. If anyone's ripping off anyone, Microsoft is ripping off Apple's metadata revolution, started with the iTunes/iPhoto interfaces. I wonder how many of you will switch to Macs when Apple releases a relational database filesystem in OS X Leopard based on CoreData and SQLite, while Microsoft drops WinFS like a broken promise, lying to you yet again about features they were going to ship?

Oh, hell, why am I even arguing with you? You still don't even have metadata search yet like OS X got way back in 2005. Hell, you don't even have a hardware accelerated desktop like we got in 2002. Have fun with Windows XP another year!

If this isn't proof of the evils of an abusive software monopoly, I don't know what is. Microsoft will be holding back computing with its dropped features, while Apple users rocket forward into the next decade on modern technology. This is just so pathetic. MICROSOFT LIED TO YOU.

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!

bonch, you're funny...

"Oh, hell, why am I even arguing with you?" Please don't. Please go away. NOW! The vast majority of users are annoyed at your fictitious remarks regarding Windows on EVERY SINGLE ARTICLE. Everyone knows your twisted bias: 1. Anything and everything coming from Microsoft is bad and/or copied from Apple. 2. Anything coming from Apple is perfect, innovative, and completely without flaws and is NEVER, EVER copied from anywhere else. 3. Windows is a stone-age operating system, whereas OS X is a modern operating system, and contains absolutely no flaws of any kind. 4. Windows users are dumb, blind peons that go with everyone else in using Microsoft's products, whereas Apple users are smart, elite people who are above everyone else because they choose Apple. Because of this overtly obvious bias, rational readers will ignore your postings. Please GO AWAY!! If you really want to vent your anger, go to blogs.msdn.com and vent away at all the MS employees.

Where's Steve Jobs? His comments were funny.

7 out of the first 8 messages are by Bonch. What does he have to say? Nothing new! The same old "Microsoft is dying" line.

Paul, it's time to disable the feedback feature all together. Back when posts were completely anonymous the feedback was nothing but flamers and trolls. Having to create an account before posting feedback did create about a month's worth of flame-free posts, with the occassional insightful post. Now we're back to the way it was before - nothing but flamers and trolls. It reflects negatively on the site, and makes it less professional. It's time to disable feedback.

I don't even remember now what WinFS was supposed to be. I mean, I know it had to do with search capabilities and metadata, but it seems to me like the issue is sort of a moot point. Spotlight on OS X works great and I'm sure the search feature in Vista will provide similar functionality to the other 90% of computer users. Of course, it'd be nice if Spotlight were instantaneous. Right now, it takes a few seconds to sort through results - especially on large disks. But I really think that in another few years Spotlight (and Microsoft's equivilent) will become instantaneous. And jersey - as for your suggestion about turning off feedback, that's pretty juvenile. Bonch has a right to say what he wants. You don't have to read his posts. Once upon a time people burned books because they didn't like the authors. Here I thought we had moved beyond such stupidity. Bonch - We should cut Microsoft a little slack. I mean, the company is trying really hard to gain Apple's "cool" image. You and I know they never will, but we should pat them on the head and smile at them the way you do when your little nephew runs around the lawn with a toy lawnmower pretending he's cutting the grass. Things like putting the progress bar in the address bar to reduce UI clutter are just Microsoft's way of imitating the grownups. We shouldn't be angry, we should be happy - it only makes Apple come up with even more cool stuff. After all, imitation is the highest form of flattery.

Here is a sad fact. Over the past two weeks playing with Windows Vista and then going to work and having to work more and more with the Mac that takes up residence on my desk (next to 2 PC's) I am actually, seriously considering buying a MacBook Pro for my every day use at home: save the PC as a server, sell my Windows laptop and getting a Mac... to the point where I have signed up for an Apple Store account and every day for the past week I have been hovering my mouse over the "Add to cart" button. Yes, after all my ranting and raving here and there I want a Mac. Vista is becoming boring to me. It's turning out to be Windows XP with a fancy interface and some bloody annyoying traits. Then there are delays like this and the ship date of Vista itself... I am beginning to shake my head at Microsoft more and more these days. Then I come here to see what's going on and bonch's comments make me cringe. I'm sorry, but the zealotry some Mac fanatics have simply kills me. The arguments are tired, repetitive and downright silly. People should make their choice based on a little research ... oh what am I saying, hardly anyone does that, but still - you super-duper-Mac minions need to chill the f u c k out. You're not helping your cause. Instead you're slowly driving away would be converts with your ranting in Windows forums. That being said - I will probably wait until a) The second generation of MacBook Pros come out and b) OS X Leopard is released so I can compare it side by side with Vista (I have a feeling it will wipe the floor with Vista, especially with recent devlopments likt this WinFS crap, but I'm one of the rare few who research before buying).

Why is it a sad fact? Maybe ironical, but definitely not sad. By the way, I too was seriously considering buying a mac mini some time back (two months ago). I started using macs around that time and thought they looked very cool. I decided not to switch for the following reasons: 1. Office 2007. 2. Cost. A good mac mini (without a monitor, keyboard, or mouse) costs $799. I found that for $100 more I could get an HP Desktop with XP MCE 2005 and a 19" LCD screen. 3. Software availability. 4. Familiarity (or in Bonch's words, "Stockholm syndrome"). 5. My girlfriend works for MS and wouldn't let me.

That said, I'm not unhappy with Windows XP. I've not had any major problems with it. I've realized that as long as one uses their computer responsibly and creates a non-administrator account for everyone else who wants to use it, the computer runs fine. I've had people download all kinds of crap onto the computer earlier, which would screw the system. Not anymore. Bonch, what have you done to the verification characters??

shark: I meant sad as in it's sad that more and more, as the weeks and months go by, I'm beginning to really wonder about MS. It has nothing to do with Paul's articles or bonch's ravings - it's the delays, the constant dropping of features, the confusion at the company and the fact that Vsta is not looking like it's going to be anything special when it comes out in January (sonetime in Q1?? WTF??). The only thing stopping me is the price. I don't want a Mini becuase, to me, the are not worth the price you pay of what you get. I don't want an iMac becuase they are friggin UGLY and are nothing more than notebook parts stuffed into an LCD monitor. I like the laptops and do require some power to get what I need done. SO that leaves me with a MacBook or a MacBook Pro. The one I want costs $3500 Canadian, after taxes. In comparison I have been thinking of getting rid of my current setup and getting a kickass desktop replacement. The few I have looked at were between $2600 and $3000 before taxes... hence the reason I have yet to do that. The MacBook Pro is comaprible to the desktop replacemetns I have looked at and is in the same price... the diffrence now would be what I want to use it for and the OS itself. All but two pieces of software I use can be had for Mac (I don't use Office 20007 enough to warrant worrying about that - I use Word to write. Nothing more, nothing less and ma actually looking at replacing Word with OpenOffice). Plus all the devlopment tools I use can be had for Mac too: things like PHP and MySQL, Tomcat and Java. Apache comes in cluded with OS X meaning I could forever rid myself of IIS). Two of the music apps I use you can't get for Mac, but can be replaced. The thing is, the more I use OS X the more I like that OS. As of right now I spend about the exact same amount of time on OS X as I do on Vista. The more I use Vista, the more I get frustrated with MS and it's new OS. The more I play with OS X the more excited I get.

Now don't get me wrong. I have nothing against XP either - other than every single OS out there has been updated big time in the last few years and, besides SP2, XP is starting to look dated. I haven't had a blue screen since the heyday of Windows 2000, it runs smooth (I don't think I've turned off my PC - installing updates aside - in over 6 months) and it just does the job. I don't run an AV program and I've never had a virus. I've also never had to deal with SpyWare: smart computing is the way to go and I wish more people followed that. The reasons Apple gives us on their website and the reasons people like bonch spew at us here are NOT the reasons I want a Mac. I don't care about who ripped off what and so on and so forth - I just would like something fresh and exciting to come out of Redmond and, right now, I have a sinking feeling that Vista is not going to be it. XP is, however, starting to show that it's looking dated and I, for one, am getting worried that Vista may not be the great thing we are being promised. Like I said though, I'm going to wait until next spring. If I'm going to drop over 3K on a mega-laptop of some sort, I want to compare them side by side. As of right this second, however, OS X is winning.

"Seriously, guys, buy a Mac. You can dual-boot to Windows to keep your games and other old necessities, but for the real work you can use an OS that's kept constantly modern and up-to-date. There's just no reason at all anymore to keep buying PCs and be stuck with the dwindling Windows disaster" buy a mac to run windows? lol. you just admited osx isn't worth the box it comes in. Apple is admitting their pc business is done for. they are becoming a media company. bootcamp is the final nail in the failed apple computer business model. proof that you can't have a closed source OS that hopes to compete with a global standard.

Yes, WinFS as it was, is dead. It's moving into SQL Server. From there, who knows. Bonch, even if I did see the light and buy a Mac, you'd still be an idiot. While there are some things that annoy me about Vista, I believe the architectural improvements to the system will provide for more successful releases after Vista, much like XP was an improvement on 2000. Also the one thing Microsoft understands is that targeting developers creates a much richer environment of ideas and software around their platform than simply trying to produce the entire platform themselves, much like the way democracy produces a better government than a dictatorship. Good ideas work their way to the surface while bad ideas get tossed every 4 or 8 years.