Additionally, key elements of the Windows WinFX Longhorn developer platform will become available for Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 in 2006.
Microsoft has decided to delay the much-anticipated release of the new
"WinFS" Windows filesystem until some time after the initial release of
Longhorn. Instead, WinFS -- which will provide "advanced data organization and management capabilities," according to Microsoft -- will be undergoing beta testing when the Longhorn client OS becomes available. WinFS is widely expected to become the successor to Microsoft's FAT and NTFS filesystems.
"We've had to make some trade-offs to deliver the features corporate customers, consumers and OEMs are asking for in a reasonable time frame," explained Jim Allchin, group vice president of Microsoft's Platforms Group. "Our long-term vision for the Windows platform remains the same."
Longhorn is also an aspect of Microsoft's
Windows XP Embedded (XPe) product roadmap, which shows Longhorn Embedded as the next major release after XPe SP2. XPe SP2, meanwhile, should follow within about 90 days of the release of XP SP, which is currently rolling out.
Microsoft also announced that the Windows
WinFX developer technologies -- including a new presentation subsystem code-named "Avalon", and a new communication subsystem code-named "Indigo" -- will be made available for Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 during 2006. The new technologies will enable developers to write applications that can run on "hundreds of millions of PCs, resulting in enhanced experiences for users of those operating systems," Microsoft says.
Microsoft describes
"Avalon" as a graphics subsystem that will enable developers to build applications that provide "breakthrough user experiences," and
"Indigo" as a new approach to building and running "connected systems built from the ground up around a Web services-oriented architecture." Microsoft claims that the advanced Web services support in "Indigo" will enable more secure, reliable, and transacted messaging, and greater interoperability.
Today's announcements pertain to the Longhorn
client OS. Anticipated availability of the Longhorn server OS continues to be 2007, Microsoft says.
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