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A Quick Peek at Longhorn
By Loyd Case
We last looked at an alpha of Longhorn, Microsoft's next-generation operating system, in May 2004. We were even able to get elements of the Aero desktop running, plus took a look at the ambitious WinFS file system.
Since then, Microsoft has removed the advanced filing system WinFS and made other key changes. Microsoft released an updated alpha of Longhorn, Build 5048, at this year's WinHEC (the Windows Hardware Engineering Conference).
We installed the Longhorn build on a Dell Inc. Inspiron XPS notebook PC, figuring that the 3.4GHz Pentium 4 processor and ATI Mobility Radeon 9700 graphics chip would have enough horsepower to handle even a stripped-down version of Longhorn. Unfortunately, the driver subsystem has a long way to go, as Longhorn failed to recognize either the Mobility Radeon 9700 or the Gigabit Ethernet chip built into the XPS system. But that just gave us an excuse to install the 64-bit version of the build on a beefed-up desktop system, which ended up working just fine.
Our first impression, upon booting up Longhorn, was that the company's engineers have made some key refinements to the interface. While not flashy, they should prove very useful for daily computing. Some of these ideas were present in skeletal fashion in the current build but are more fully realized in this build. Microsoft also gave a peek at more advanced interface ideas in the keynote presentation that was given by Bill Gates and others at the start of WinHEC.
Familiar, Yet New
When you first bring up the Longhorn desktop, you could just as well be looking at the Windows XP desktop, with a different background. As you start to drill deeper, though, nifty little refinements become apparent.
*common.ziffdavisinternet.com/util_get_image/10/0,1311,i=103646,00.jpg
If you're like me, your programs menu has no doubt become a massive, unwieldy list of programs, with multiple panes on the fly-out menu. That's a real nuisance. In this build, a scrolling list of your programs is built in a subwindow on the left side of the start menu. Also, a small dialog entry box lives at the bottom of the start menu.
If your list of applications is very long, just start typing an app name in this box. As you type, Windows will make a guess as to the name, making the scrolling list shorter as you type more letters. It's a great boon for users with tons of programs.
Opening up "My Computer" gives you a more pictorial view than seen in Windows XP. Bar charts instantly give you a feel for how much space is left on your storage devices. One thing you'll notice as you drill down into folders—the "up" icon is now gone. Mostly, you'll navigate the folder structure with forward and backward icons, much like a Web browser.
*common.ziffdavisinternet.com/util_get_image/10/0,1311,i=103647,00.jpg
The document view has also been refined somewhat, but it's still pretty much the same as last year's build. As with earlier builds, you can easily scale the size of icons to whatever suits your fancy. Gone are the WinFS substructures, but they've been replaced by something called "lists," which are collections of documents you can create on the fly.
Lists are really ad-hoc collections of shortcuts used to create customized file groupings. Since you're not making multiple copies of documents, just building shortcut lists, it's very efficient. You can have multiple shortcuts to the same document in different lists, allowing you to think in a multidimensional way, rather than trying to work within the straightjacket of a hierarchical folder structure.
*common.ziffdavisinternet.com/util_get_image/10/0,1311,i=103648,00.jpg
*common.ziffdavisinternet.com/util_get_image/10/0,1311,i=103649,00.jpg
In addition, Longhorn exposes the previously hidden property sheet, showing the document properties pane in the lower part of the window. You can add keywords to make it easier to create and search through these lists. It's clear that Microsoft took some of the ideas of the WinFS file system and created a sort of meta-system for users, without the overhead of a relational file system.
Microsoft will make desktop search easier with Longhorn as well. Our preview build had a search capability reminiscent of database search engines we've used in the past. It's easy to create cascading queries, based on a host of different document properties. Oh, and the obnoxious, animated search puppy has been eliminated (to much rejoicing).
*common.ziffdavisinternet.com/util_get_image/10/0,1311,i=103650,00.jpg
Longhorn builds indexes of the file system, which substantially speeds up the search process. Both the desktop search feature and lists can work across multiple systems, provided the user has access to those files. It will also find and index files on departmental servers and across the Web. A team working together really doesn't need to worry about where files are located.
In an effort to make things easier, the designers seem to be adding more text to the interface, rather than less—but in certain areas. While you don't need lots of explanatory text just to look at photos, the control panel is a different manner entirely and adds verbose descriptions.
*common.ziffdavisinternet.com/util_get_image/10/0,1311,i=103652,00.jpg
Finally, there's good old Internet Explorer. This particular build only contains a version of IE6, but it has been buffed up and adds a more visual take on the address bar.
*common.ziffdavisinternet.com/util_get_image/10/0,1311,i=103653,00.jpg
Over the coming weeks, we'll look at Longhorn in more depth, including exploring the 64-bit version and seeing what we can uncover about Windows Graphics Foundation. Meanwhile, this release seems snappier than past versions, and some of the refinements, including allowing users to organize their documents visually, look like intriguing additions to Windows, as the venerable OS moves into its third decade.
A Quick Peek at Longhorn
By Loyd Case
We last looked at an alpha of Longhorn, Microsoft's next-generation operating system, in May 2004. We were even able to get elements of the Aero desktop running, plus took a look at the ambitious WinFS file system.
Since then, Microsoft has removed the advanced filing system WinFS and made other key changes. Microsoft released an updated alpha of Longhorn, Build 5048, at this year's WinHEC (the Windows Hardware Engineering Conference).
We installed the Longhorn build on a Dell Inc. Inspiron XPS notebook PC, figuring that the 3.4GHz Pentium 4 processor and ATI Mobility Radeon 9700 graphics chip would have enough horsepower to handle even a stripped-down version of Longhorn. Unfortunately, the driver subsystem has a long way to go, as Longhorn failed to recognize either the Mobility Radeon 9700 or the Gigabit Ethernet chip built into the XPS system. But that just gave us an excuse to install the 64-bit version of the build on a beefed-up desktop system, which ended up working just fine.
Our first impression, upon booting up Longhorn, was that the company's engineers have made some key refinements to the interface. While not flashy, they should prove very useful for daily computing. Some of these ideas were present in skeletal fashion in the current build but are more fully realized in this build. Microsoft also gave a peek at more advanced interface ideas in the keynote presentation that was given by Bill Gates and others at the start of WinHEC.
Familiar, Yet New
When you first bring up the Longhorn desktop, you could just as well be looking at the Windows XP desktop, with a different background. As you start to drill deeper, though, nifty little refinements become apparent.
*common.ziffdavisinternet.com/util_get_image/10/0,1311,i=103646,00.jpg
If you're like me, your programs menu has no doubt become a massive, unwieldy list of programs, with multiple panes on the fly-out menu. That's a real nuisance. In this build, a scrolling list of your programs is built in a subwindow on the left side of the start menu. Also, a small dialog entry box lives at the bottom of the start menu.
If your list of applications is very long, just start typing an app name in this box. As you type, Windows will make a guess as to the name, making the scrolling list shorter as you type more letters. It's a great boon for users with tons of programs.
Opening up "My Computer" gives you a more pictorial view than seen in Windows XP. Bar charts instantly give you a feel for how much space is left on your storage devices. One thing you'll notice as you drill down into folders—the "up" icon is now gone. Mostly, you'll navigate the folder structure with forward and backward icons, much like a Web browser.
*common.ziffdavisinternet.com/util_get_image/10/0,1311,i=103647,00.jpg
The document view has also been refined somewhat, but it's still pretty much the same as last year's build. As with earlier builds, you can easily scale the size of icons to whatever suits your fancy. Gone are the WinFS substructures, but they've been replaced by something called "lists," which are collections of documents you can create on the fly.
Lists are really ad-hoc collections of shortcuts used to create customized file groupings. Since you're not making multiple copies of documents, just building shortcut lists, it's very efficient. You can have multiple shortcuts to the same document in different lists, allowing you to think in a multidimensional way, rather than trying to work within the straightjacket of a hierarchical folder structure.
*common.ziffdavisinternet.com/util_get_image/10/0,1311,i=103648,00.jpg
*common.ziffdavisinternet.com/util_get_image/10/0,1311,i=103649,00.jpg
In addition, Longhorn exposes the previously hidden property sheet, showing the document properties pane in the lower part of the window. You can add keywords to make it easier to create and search through these lists. It's clear that Microsoft took some of the ideas of the WinFS file system and created a sort of meta-system for users, without the overhead of a relational file system.
Microsoft will make desktop search easier with Longhorn as well. Our preview build had a search capability reminiscent of database search engines we've used in the past. It's easy to create cascading queries, based on a host of different document properties. Oh, and the obnoxious, animated search puppy has been eliminated (to much rejoicing).
*common.ziffdavisinternet.com/util_get_image/10/0,1311,i=103650,00.jpg
Longhorn builds indexes of the file system, which substantially speeds up the search process. Both the desktop search feature and lists can work across multiple systems, provided the user has access to those files. It will also find and index files on departmental servers and across the Web. A team working together really doesn't need to worry about where files are located.
In an effort to make things easier, the designers seem to be adding more text to the interface, rather than less—but in certain areas. While you don't need lots of explanatory text just to look at photos, the control panel is a different manner entirely and adds verbose descriptions.
*common.ziffdavisinternet.com/util_get_image/10/0,1311,i=103652,00.jpg
Finally, there's good old Internet Explorer. This particular build only contains a version of IE6, but it has been buffed up and adds a more visual take on the address bar.
*common.ziffdavisinternet.com/util_get_image/10/0,1311,i=103653,00.jpg
Over the coming weeks, we'll look at Longhorn in more depth, including exploring the 64-bit version and seeing what we can uncover about Windows Graphics Foundation. Meanwhile, this release seems snappier than past versions, and some of the refinements, including allowing users to organize their documents visually, look like intriguing additions to Windows, as the venerable OS moves into its third decade.
