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Tuesday, October 22, 2002
22:53 - And so it goes...
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,3959,642737,00.asp

(top) link
Here's an eWeek story, along with links to screenshots, of the "Longhorn" project-- Microsoft's successor to WinXP, due out in 2005 (last I heard). And surprise surprise, among its features it counts:

One third-party developer, who requested anonymity, said the Longhorn shell, or user interface, is taking shape quite nicely. Microsoft is developing a Longhorn compositing video application-programming interface for apps written with .NET that is similar to Apple's Quartz on Mac OS X, he says.

Yeah, we didn't see that one coming. Hey, you know, that kind of compositing-engine technology actually is useful, guys; you don't have to put it in just because Apple did it already.

(Sorry, that just sorta slipped out.)

It'll also have the new "Yukon" filesystem, which is presumably that SQL-based thing we've been hearing whispers about for a while now; if there's any sanity in Redmond at all, this will finally bring to Windows the unique-file-ID functionality that the Mac has had since day one, enabling people to write Windows software that keeps track of files no matter where you move them-- the lack of which functionality is the primary reason why Windows doesn't have an MP3 player that works as well as iTunes. (Though it's maddening when even Mac software is written by people without a clue how to take advantage of this obvious superior technique and instead use hard-coded paths for components. Like the RealOne player, which installed itself onto my Desktop, and registered itself into my IE; but then, when I moved the player into my Applications folder, IE lost track of it and was unable to play back Real streams, because it was stupidly coded to look for it on the Desktop. Hello! McFly! Mac applications are all registered into the Desktop database by their IDs; you don't have to solder them into the walls by referring to them by the blinkin' filesystem paths!)

Also:

Previously, members of the Windows community had speculated that this dockable pane was based on a Microsoft-Research-developed technology, code-named Sideshow. It still is not clear how and even if Sidebar and Sideshow are related.
Newsweek just had a story about how Microsoft is sending its human-interface psych-gestapo into volunteer Nielsen families' households, setting up camera crews and watching the family members poke at an MSN/Longhorn beta. It told the heart-rending story of how the eldest daughter saw the new "Sidebar" shelf on the side of the screen, and spent a determined five-to-ten minutes trying to get rid of it. "This will break the heart of some engineer back at the base," sighed the Marty Stouffer of the GUI from his blind.

At least they're trying, though. Whether they have the slightest clue what to do or not, at least they're being kept nervous and active by the presence of a competitor.

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© Brian Tiemann