Windows Longhorn is Just a Whole Lot of Bull. . .

[Q Classic]

that, i'm not so sure about. i'm sure you will, but it'll be hidden.

you know that damned indexing service which takes up some much of the goddamned resources in windows xp? imagine the results of that, without having to have that blasted slowdown. that's what they're shooting for.

as i understand it, they want to thus move away from the traditional drive/directory/file format, and go to a stacks/file format--stacks being collections of linked data that you can take with you wherever you go. the dream is to have it always availible, across a palmtop, a laptop, or a desktop.

[JohnT]

Originally posted by Imran Siddiqui

Color me clueless but I'm totally missing it.

Longhorn... bull... Longhorn... bull

Help, John?

No.

My wife doesn't get it either. Thanks guys - You have successfully shown that I'm now as computer illiterate as her!

[Imran Siddiqui]

JOHN!!

Longhorn cattle... bull... both are types of cows! So when Longhorn is a lot of bull, he is saying 'Cows' are a lot of 'Cows' (basically).

[Mr. Nice Guy]

It's a pun, John. Can't you see? Don't you know that a bull is a male cow? Like, duh!

[St Leo]

Longhorn = Ripoff of Mozilla's XUL + Ripoff of BeOS file system + Ripoff of JVM

The new notification thingies do look well implemented, but I am not impressed by the sidebar. Microsoft better ship the Windows Classic theme in addition to the fugly Aero/Luna/"Brushed Metal Ripoff".

Anyways, I am unlikely to bother upgrading this computer to it.

BTW, it's two Microsoft years from release, so whatever.

[Q Classic]

ever notice how RTM is that close to RTFM ?

[MattH]

Looking interesting
Asher... do you have a list of GUI features that are coming out with Longhorn? That's something I'd like to hear about.

And they still haven't fixed that IE thing... The file options etc. menus look terrible under the brushed metal new-agey top bar

[Asher]

Originally posted by St Leo
Longhorn = Ripoff of Mozilla's XUL + Ripoff of BeOS file system + Ripoff of JVM

Huh? Where on earth do you get it being a ripoff of Mozilla's XUL? It's nothing like that, unless Mozilla ran XUL off graphics cards...but last I checked, they didn't.

I think you're confusing it with Windows XP's XML-based themeing system, which is totally different than Avalon and certainly not a XUL ripoff (which is painfully slow and limited, is a non-native version of XP's GDI+)?

BeOS' file system isn't even close to WinFS -- do some research.

Just because it has metadata doesn't make it a database -- NTFS 5.0 and 5.1 have full metadata and journalling capabilities, as well.

And how is .NET a ripoff of JVM? Java wasn't the first high-level device which used a virtual machine, nor will it be the last. Not to mention JVM is slow, bloaty, and limited to Java while .NET works with 50+(last I checked, probably higher) programming languages and is also an ISO standard.

The new notification thingies do look well implemented, but I am not impressed by the sidebar. Microsoft better ship the Windows Classic theme in addition to the fugly Aero/Luna/"Brushed Metal Ripoff".

Um. First of all, you haven't seen Aero -- Plex and the new silver theme are placeholders, Aero is only working on certain builds on MS Campus and they're under lock and key. A few press people have seen them (like Paul Thurrott) and claim it's amazing, and he criticized Luna and the two temporary ones...

And they've already said Windows Classic will be available. It'll run the same GDI+ and same theme as Windows XP does for "Windows Classic".

There's a step above that which uses DirectX 7 for the GUI, and the highest step uses DirectX 9 for the GUI.

[Asher]

Originally posted by MattH
Looking interesting
Asher... do you have a list of GUI features that are coming out with Longhorn? That's something I'd like to hear about.

The actual GUI as it'll be shown no one knows anything, or can't say anything, about.

The engine behind the GUI is incredibly powerful. The current systems (Linux, Unix, Windows, MacOS) basically work by having a simple 2D image and constantly redrawing everything. It's pretty kludgey, and which is why when you drag things around it isn't as smooth as it could be.

In Avalon, the new GUI engine in Longhorn replacing the aging "GDI" in Windows, the entire interface is offloaded to the video card, rather than CPU and system RAM. Since the video card sits idle almost all the time during regular OS use, and not full-screen gaming, the result is a GUI that effectively uses 0% CPU and 0 system RAM. Since this is now offloaded onto the graphics card, you can do virtually anything with them. Windows themselves are simply textures (which is why in DX9, support for 2048x2048 textures is mandatory) and exist in a 3D space. You can do literally anything with them. Apply pixel shaders and vertex shaders, make them flop around the screen, zoom out and zoom in, etc -- and all of it is very efficient since it's done in dedicated hardware.

And they still haven't fixed that IE thing... The file options etc. menus look terrible under the brushed metal new-agey top bar

Both of the two themes you've seen in Longhorn screenshots will not be shipped with Longhorn. They're both temporary placeholders, and not "Aero" which is only in a few select builds under lock and key.

MS is paranoid about competitors like Apple ripping it off before its release since they have a shorter product cycle, then have everyone talk about how MS always copies Apple.

[JohnT]

Originally posted by Imran Siddiqui
JOHN!!

Longhorn cattle... bull... both are types of cows! So when Longhorn is a lot of bull, he is saying 'Cows' are a lot of 'Cows' (basically).

Yeah, I understand that: the trademark would've helped clue me in if I was unawares. Hell, when I first heard of the name I was thinking "well, it's about time to start the clock on two years of bullshiite puns from UR."

I'm just trying to see what is even slightly humourous about the linked picture.

Otoh, must be damn funny to those who think "M$" is the height of satirical protest.

[Deathwalker]

Windows XP was never backwards compatable. All my old software would never work on it. For example master of orion 2 or Star wars supreamcy.
Longhorn is going have the same claims about it as were for XP and it will never live up to what microsoft claims. It's just the usual lies to trie and get us to upgrade and give them even more money. They would be better of refining XP

[Q Classic]

?

master of orion 2 works flawlessly on my windows xp and this is without even having to go through any windows compatibility toolkit wizards...

civ2 also works, no problem. and civ1. so does sc2k. simtower, a few of those old SSI rpgs...

[Q Classic]

OOH! a cli that doesn't suck balls!

http://weblogs.asp.net/jnadal/posts/34413.aspx

'cept monad is too close to gonad.

[Imran Siddiqui]

I'm just trying to see what is even slightly humourous about the linked picture.

He was laughing at his OWN pun!

[JohnT]