Allchin Talks Turkey About Longhorn

Allchin said to expect another preview of Longhorn code at WinHEC later this month, a beta release of both client and server this summer, with a developer beta to follow in the fall. The long-awaited client operating system is due by the holiday season and the server in 2007.

CRN: Microsoft plans to release a beta of Longhorn this summer. Will you make first half or second half of 2005?

ALLCHIN: It'll be early summer. We're on track for the first half as I sit here today.

CRN: How will you try to integrate laptops and desktops with SmartPhones?

ALLCHIN: We'll have a sync manager in Longhorn to simplify that sync process for phones and other machines. It's [not ActiveSync 4] but a new version of synchronization, a brand new system being done for Longhorn and will have a whole set of wireless support so it can run more seamlessly between work and home and understands the environment.

CRN: Should developers be using APIs in the next Longhorn build [due at WinHEC 2005] or the formal developers' edition preview to be distributed at PDC 2005?

ALLCHIN: At WinHEC we'll give a build out of Longhorn, help developers through the transition of writing graphics drivers. You can call it a preview, it's not a beta. But it's dramatically different from the first preview. Nothing we have today has our new user interface on it. But we have some things to show you. There are a large number of people trying to get a jump using new technology already; we've been giving them that. After PDC 2005, we'll have a beta and we'll decide the [shipping] date. We're still on track for shipping by holiday 2006, so we'll be done before then.

CRN: When we talked to partners at PDC 2003, where you showed off all this Longhorn stuff, there was a lot of excitement. But now that everything has slip-slided, even die-hard Microsoft partners seem disappointed with all the delays and incremental releases. What's your message to them?

ALLCHIN: That's what I'm trying to tell you. It isn't. It's not incremental. The world, in my opinion, thinks this is perhaps the next version of a Service Pack. I think the world generally thinks that. It's not. It's a very big deal.

CRN: [Regarding the demo of Longhorn's Visual Folders search and visualize feature.] Is it based on WinFS? MSN Search?

ALLCHIN: No. It's much more about indexing. It's a much richer view capability built into Longhorn. Visualize and organize goes back to Cairo [an old Windows NT project]. The indexing technology that's in XP and in Windows 2000 is a follow-on of Cairo technology. We have continued working on that technology and it's used by MSN search but it's been in the operating system for awhile. [With Longhorn] it is dramatically improved.