Longhorn: Will Microsoft keep the door open?

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The next version of Windows, code-named Longhorn has incredible possibilties.

The desktop, as you know it, dies with Longhorn. Instead, it will be a fully composited desktop. Or, to put it another way, it will have the same kind of performance one would expect from a full screen Direct3D game. That means all kinds of things will become possible.

But will Microsoft keep the door open for third parties to extend and customize Windows? With all this new power, the potential for incredible innovation in the Windows market by third party developers is immense. But only if Microsoft also adds in hooks for third parties to get in there and do things to the system that no one in Redmond has considered.

This article at JoeUser.com talks about this in more depth and has a few never before seen screenshots of Longhorn in action.

News source: Longhorn: Will Microsoft keep the door open (full article)

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(4 replies) #1 rbet on 23 May 2004 - 17:54

Go Stardock!

#1.1 Grope for Luna on 23 May 2004 - 21:41

We can only hope they become irrelevant. Stardock - ugh!

#1.2 shed2069 on 23 May 2004 - 23:04

QUOTE (#1.1)

Thats right, I dont want to have to by bloat-ware to make my desktop look good.

These should be part of the OS, I want to be able to fully colorise everything the way I want....

OK, so maybe the little widgets like the 'weather applets' and all that form Stardock are good in DesktopX, but the basic 'themeing' should be part of the OS.

The fact they have a million (deliberate exageration) different products to achieve a 'good looking functional desktop' really annoyes me.

Bloat-ware just sux, thats all.

#1.3 Mav Phoenix on 24 May 2004 - 03:12

^Morons just 'sux' too.

#1.4 mr_da3m0n on 24 May 2004 - 04:28

YES of COURSE! Instead of using third party "bloatware" LET'S MAKE IT DIRECTLY INTO THE OS!

Ressources are ressources.

(10 replies) #2 Ruciz on 23 May 2004 - 17:59

hmm, maybe mictosoft will eat stardock and make them part of Mircosoft kinda like they did with Symantecs Norton antivirus.. never know, I am personally looking forward to the linux development over longhorn, but you never know.

#2.1 Daedalus on 23 May 2004 - 18:12

What did they do with Norton Antivirus? Did I miss something?

#2.2 MikeCoz on 23 May 2004 - 18:39

i'm interested too... what happened?

#2.3 DJ Prem on 23 May 2004 - 18:46

What happened?

#2.4 MuD on 23 May 2004 - 19:26

QUOTE (#2.2)

me too, what happened?

#2.5 Post-It Note on 23 May 2004 - 20:02

Yes... let's ALL ask what happened

#2.6 Octol on 23 May 2004 - 20:17

Inquiring minds want to know!

#2.7 neufuse on 23 May 2004 - 21:14

making up BS is what happened

#2.8 Mav Phoenix on 23 May 2004 - 21:24

#2.9 mr_da3m0n on 24 May 2004 - 04:30

I think he is vaguely confused and confusing the less known "RAV Antivirus", which _was_ bought by Microsoft.

It really is a shame, their mail server antivirus for Linux was wonderful.

#2.10 leojei on 24 May 2004 - 05:08

LOL! nice catch there. I was wondering as I read for answers. But I did miss the part of "the desktop we're using now dies in Longhorn...", where I can get a hold of news about it? (Along with the "new" desktop MS is planning to plugin)

I think MS eating Stardock sounds good. Since they were kindda working together to enhance the UI of the OS. I'm using Stardock products, and I must say that some of their products are quite unstable and memory-hungry. But the visions (or should I call them future?) of the products from Stardock are definitely the "true control of the OS". Please note that I'm only saying the ideas of Stardock's products are good, but I personally think Stardock needs to improve their codes more...

(14 replies) #3 area91 on 23 May 2004 - 18:53

Linux is about as interesting as a fish in a tank. Wow, omg, they added a new threading model. WHo the hell gives a **** unless your a developer.

#3.1 Varsity on 23 May 2004 - 19:01

That's why it's designed for developers.

#3.2 area91 on 23 May 2004 - 19:23

They sure as hell aren't doing a good job designing it for developers. For most developers, Windows owns.

#3.3 Knight' on 23 May 2004 - 19:26

area91 you're about as dumb as it comes.

#3.4 MuD on 23 May 2004 - 19:37

QUOTE (#3.3)

LOL. You guys are weird.

#3.5 Jason on 23 May 2004 - 19:51

area91 you're about as dumb as it comes

And your any better with that sort of comment ?

#3.6 Jugalator on 23 May 2004 - 20:29

QUOTE

Wow, omg, they added a new threading model.

This particular feature meant noticeably better performance for you as a user, especially for multimedia applications.

Would you have said the same thing if Microsoft announced Longhorn will give much better overall performance than XP?

Uh, what? Like if Linux doesn't have documented API's and advanced IDE's for software development...

#3.7 area91 on 23 May 2004 - 20:32

That’s great for the end user, but to respond to someone who said Linux is the best for developers, well, the new threading model means you get stuck re-writing a good chunk of your code.

#3.8 Jugalator on 23 May 2004 - 20:34

You said: "WHo the hell gives a **** unless your a developer." (regarding the threading model)
I answered this by telling why non-developers should find it interesting.

Besides, unless you write apps at quite low-level, you shouldn't be very affected by this.

#3.9 Shining Arcanine on 23 May 2004 - 23:20

area91 is right, you don't have to constantly rewrite your code, you are dealing with a company that has you in mind and everything that isn't on the top of my head.

I remember when I was complaining about IE's standards support, I had a conversation with Tony Chor (Windows Internet Explorer Group Project Manager) who explained that the IE team was split up after 6.0 and they now have assembled a new team which is working on it. If I recall, I told him what needed to be fixed and he told me that they are working on it. He also told me that the next few months are tied up with security stuff.

#3.10 werejag on 24 May 2004 - 01:05

yeah microsoft has your best interest in mind.

hail hail hail

#3.11 STV on 24 May 2004 - 02:17

if they dont, then they will disappear. also, i would like to add that they are showing signs of changing, so i suggest you hold off your comments until you know for sure that they dont care.

STV

#3.12 markjensen on 24 May 2004 - 02:21

Well, regardless of whether a corporation can feel 'warm-n-fuzzy' toward its customers, you have to realize that all corporations have a primary fiduciary responsibility to their shareholders.

Everything else is just an end to that means.

#3.13 JaggedFlame on 24 May 2004 - 12:25

That's great and all, but when the shareholders and the customers overlap, they need to have the customer's best interest in mind.

#3.14 deron dantzler on 25 May 2004 - 16:16

Customers drive companies. Shareholders buy stock because they suspect that the company will succeed. Why do they think the company will succeed? Because they are creating a product that appeals the market a.k.a. the CUSTOMER.

If there is no public appeal for a product then sales decline. Sales decline and the shareholders aren't lining their pockets with enough money. There were customers before there were shareholders. Shareholders bought in because they were enthused by how this new product was taking the market. Lets get this straight.

(1 reply) #4 pogz on 23 May 2004 - 19:07

I just love how almost every news article's comments here end up being about a different OS than the one even mentioned in the article

#4.1 area91 on 23 May 2004 - 19:24

lol..true!

(4 replies) #5 Randall_Lind on 23 May 2004 - 20:14

So this mean what? we need 1ghz in ram to run Longhorn like most games requires today?

#5.1 MuD on 23 May 2004 - 20:36

QUOTE (#5.0)

Probably. Don't worry, by that time we'll all have PC's that can handle it. Microsoft won't release a product that 5% of computer users can run. Besides, you can turn the graphics-heavy options off if you want to. It won't look pretty (much like Windows 2000), but at least it's useable.

#5.2 Mav Phoenix on 23 May 2004 - 21:26

What the hell is "1ghz in ram"?

#5.3 Shining Arcanine on 23 May 2004 - 23:21

The speed of the memory. The latest PCs have 800MHz.

#5.4 Mav Phoenix on 24 May 2004 - 03:14

Actually I thought he was trying to say 1GB of RAM. Memory speeds aren't really a concern to run an OS since they are tied to the chip speed ratio. If your RAM is too slow then your CPU is too.

(6 replies) #6 Grope for Luna on 23 May 2004 - 21:42

I don't think those screenshots are even real.

#6.1 Kracal on 23 May 2004 - 22:53

They are....

#6.2 theyarecomingforyou on 23 May 2004 - 23:17

They're genuine... they've just turned on DWM, which adds the shadows and green border on windows (which is a bug, it's meant to be a translucent glass theme).

#6.3 Grope for Luna on 24 May 2004 - 00:05

The antialiasing, or lack of, on this one looks fakey:

#6.4 Xeron on 24 May 2004 - 00:15

I can recreate that screenshot in Longhorn. It is real.

#6.5 chacho on 24 May 2004 - 00:30

uh.....ok. they are.

#6.6 nw_raptor on 24 May 2004 - 19:38

indeed, they are real... about antialiasing: since everything will be rendered in d3d i guess they will be able to add that effect sooner or later

i dont think you should expect perfect effects from an alpha-state OS... soon-to-come i guess...

#7 Inspire on 23 May 2004 - 22:11

I believe they are real...

#8 Gr_Terror on 23 May 2004 - 23:04

me too

(1 reply) #9 todd` on 24 May 2004 - 00:13

Anyone else ready to be able to customize every icon in the OS easily without 3rd party apps? Much the way we can skin windows now simply by enabling the theme service and using built in functions of the OS?

#9.1 Mav Phoenix on 24 May 2004 - 03:16

That would be nice, but it'd screw up relations with companies like Stardock for sure.

#10 malebolgia on 24 May 2004 - 00:31

Microsoft knows with out developers Longhorn doesn't stand a chance. That's why at every convention Microsoft is trying to get more and more developers ready for Longhorn. Microsoft's wouldn't alienate the only people who can really take off Longhorn. That's just me rambling on.

#11 Ivand on 24 May 2004 - 00:45

Very nice read, thanks

#12 STV on 24 May 2004 - 00:58

i happen to think they will. take a look at the video: http://msdn.microsoft.com/longhorn/ciab/

STV

#13 RangerLG on 24 May 2004 - 06:57

How about spending less time making it look pretty and make sure it is a functioning OS. To me, the OS should be the most transparent part of the system. It should have an interface which allows the launching of applications, thats it! We don't need spinning animated windows. Eye candy is for games. Focus on sercurity and functionality, leave the eye candy to those who want it via 3rd party apps.

#14 c242 on 24 May 2004 - 10:55

Most of the reactions are exactly what I expected.

Brad, You have my deepest respect for still posting these sort of thoughts here.

#15 moeburn on 24 May 2004 - 13:57

Does this mean that if i switch to longhorn, my CPU will never even have an idle temp?

#16 tiwaris on 24 May 2004 - 18:56

I wish they improve the "command prompt" which IMO they have intentionally left it like it was 10 years back. I would also love to see detailed documentation about features and various commands they make available. If they really want to make it more developer friendly, they should give more power to the end user rather making the user behave like a sheep.

#17 Damien on 24 May 2004 - 21:33

Talk about idiotic responses colored by misinformation.

Anyone here actually pay attention to resource usage in their systems? My *wallpaper* takes up more RAM than WindowBlinds right now...

WBLOAD on my system runs under 1MB total for the system. Find out which SVCHOST process your MSSTYLE runs under and then tell me how much WB is a memory hog. Geez...

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