McDuck Posted October 19, 2003 Share Posted October 19, 2003 (edited) Heya. I run an IRC channel, and we get the same questions over and over again. This FAQ is ment for people who are new to betas and could cover all the basic questions. Whats Windows Longhorn? Longhorn is the codename for the next version of Microsoft Windows. The current versions is XP and 2003. Why issent Longhorn released before 2006 when its already released on the internet Longhorn is not done yet! The version of Longhorn thats on the internet is an Pre Alpha. A Alpha is an internal development version meant for only a few selected to try. Its not in any way done, and its full of errors. Microsoft will use the next years to develop Longhorn into a strong, stable and usable operating system. Whats an Beta Then? Microsoft may be good at testing. But the geeks who sit on their chairs all day, just dont represent the majority of users who are finaly going to use Longhorn. So, when they feel Longhorn is somewhat usable (Still full of error, but atleast it will boot ok), they release these developer versions to some selected users. These users are picked from the gruops that will finaly use Longhorn and includes: * Home users * Professional users * Corporations * Software developers These versions are called Betas. How will it look? Will it have the XP style over it? Acctualy, there are alot of screenshoots out from the Alpha release. Here are the link to some: Internet Explorer About Window My Pictures Folder Control Panel To find more simply do a web search for "Windows Longhorn Screenshots". What new features will there be? We still dont know everything thats going to be added yet. However, we know some of what the future Longhorn will have. * Longhorn will feature a task-based (or "iterative") interface that goes far beyond the task-based interface found today in Windows XP. Microsoft has been working to move beyond the dated desktop metaphor still used by Mac OS X and Linux; I explain some of Microsoft's early work on task-based interfaces in my old Activity Centers preview. This new user interface is code-named "Aero" and is based on a new .NET-based API called "Avalon." * The Longhorn Start Menu and task bar will be enhanced with a new Sidebar component that can optionally appear locked to one side of the desktop. The Sidebar is an XML-based panel that includes links to local and remote resources. (Look at the big menu on the left side of the screenshots i posted some lines up) * Longhorn will require 3D video hardware to render special effects that will make the screen more photorealistic and deep. This doesn't mean that the basic windows and mouse interface is being replaced, just that it will look a lot better. This can also be turned off easily. Also, Clippy dident get a job in Longhorn, so dont worry about that! * Longhorn will include a database-like file system add-on called Windows Future Storage (WinFS), which is based on technology from SQL Server 2003 (code-named Yukon (A list over Microsofts can be found here or by doing a web search for "Microsoft Codename List"). This file system add-on will abstract physical file locations from the user and allow for the sorts of complex data searching that are impossible today. For example, today, your email messages, contacts, Word documents, and music files are all completely separate. That won't be the case in Longhorn. WinFS requires NTFS. * Longhorn will include integrated recordable DVD capabilities and will work with every type of recordable DVD format. Digital media enthusiasts will be able to copy video from a digital camcorder directly to recordable DVD, bypassing the system's hard drive entirely, if desired. This will of cource demand a great deal of memory. * Longhorn will install in about 15 minutes. Sounds Great! When will i be able to go out and buy Longhorn? We all remember how it was with Windows XP, the release date changes pretty often. The last official word from Microsoft is early 2006. Will longhorn play my old DOS games? Officialy no word on that. The alpha had support for DOS, but that did not work very well. Dont worry, there will probably be 3rd party software to support that if its excluded. Now i got all excited about betas! Whats next after longhorn? Blackcomb is the next major release. Just like Longhorn that is also just an codename. Many predict Blackcomb to be a server release just like 2003, and not for the home user. However, things may change. Finaly, Longhorn? Who in the world came up with that name? When the developers at microsoft gets tired of work (Like we all do), they go to a ski resort on the montain Whister. Whister was the codename for Windows XP. Also, there is a salon on the foot of Whistler called Longhorn! Blackcomb is another montain right next to Longhorn. This FAQ was based on some other FAQs i found, and got rewritten for the normal "newbie" to understand what Longhorn is. Written by McDuck ( Even.Stokkedalen@<< spam >> ). Some material is from other FAQs, some in english, some in norwegian. Thanks to the editors of these FAQs. User feedback is desired :) Edited October 19, 2003 by McDuck Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Randolph Posted October 19, 2003 Share Posted October 19, 2003 i think you mean alpha instead of pre-alpha. good faq though. :p Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DsnBehind Posted October 19, 2003 Share Posted October 19, 2003 User feedback on this thread is wanted :) Grammar, spelling, punctuation... :whistle: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
McDuck Posted October 19, 2003 Author Share Posted October 19, 2003 Fixed :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
McDuck Posted October 19, 2003 Author Share Posted October 19, 2003 Grammar, spelling, punctuation... :whistle: Im from norway ;) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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