Longhorn, the next major version of Windows for desktop PCs, will debut in 2005 and will usher in a new level of graphics for PCs, Microsoft executives said Wednesday.
While Microsoft plans to release "a couple of beta," or test, versions of Longhorn in 2004, the final version of the operating system won't come out commercially until 2005, said Will Poole, senior vice president of the Windows Client division at Microsoft. He made the comments during a speech delivered at the Windows Hardware Engineering Conference (WinHEC) here. Previously, analysts and sources had speculated that Longhorn would come out in late 2004 or early 2005.
"The weight of the company is behind Longhorn," Poole said. "This is a huge bet for the company. It will really change the landscape of what people see."
With Longhorn, Microsoft hopes to improve the visual quality of the computing experience. Company representatives at a WinHEC demonstration of a pre-beta version of Longhorn said that the goal is to be able to run the OS on screens with a resolution of 120 dots per inch or higher.
That's far more refined than screens today. Current 17-inch SXGA displays have a resolution of about 95 dots per square inch, said Bob O'Donnell, an analyst at market research firm IDC.
News source: news.com
While Microsoft plans to release "a couple of beta," or test, versions of Longhorn in 2004, the final version of the operating system won't come out commercially until 2005, said Will Poole, senior vice president of the Windows Client division at Microsoft. He made the comments during a speech delivered at the Windows Hardware Engineering Conference (WinHEC) here. Previously, analysts and sources had speculated that Longhorn would come out in late 2004 or early 2005.
"The weight of the company is behind Longhorn," Poole said. "This is a huge bet for the company. It will really change the landscape of what people see."
With Longhorn, Microsoft hopes to improve the visual quality of the computing experience. Company representatives at a WinHEC demonstration of a pre-beta version of Longhorn said that the goal is to be able to run the OS on screens with a resolution of 120 dots per inch or higher.
That's far more refined than screens today. Current 17-inch SXGA displays have a resolution of about 95 dots per square inch, said Bob O'Donnell, an analyst at market research firm IDC.
News source: news.com
The action is predicated on the country's Product Liability Act, which enables consumers to sue for damage resulting from products. There is some question, however, as to whether software qualifies as a product under the terms of the law.
Such lawsuits—especially those that name software vendors as defendants—are relatively rare, thanks to the terms of the user license agreements that accompany virtually every commercial application sold today. License agreements typically require that users agree to use the software as-is and surrender any rights to hold the manufacturer liable for defects or damage caused by the application.
In some cases, large corporate customers have service level agreements that give them the ability to hold their ISPs liable for network outages that affect the companies' ability to do business. But individual consumers don't enjoy such protections and are essentially left to their own devices when it comes to problems such as Slammer.
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