Longhorn is ruined without WinFS

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Longhorn is ruined without WinFS

Well it's official, I have read it in the past but I refused to believe it. WinFS (the sql database based file system) which was one of the star features of Longhorn will NOT be in the launch version of Longhorn. Instead it will be an add on that will arrive "shortly" after Longhorn's release.

Imho this is a total travisty, as many people do not download "add-ons" for their OS. Worse yet, with WinFS not being a standard pillar of Longhorn, developers can't assume it's installed which means next gen apps cannot rely on a reliation file system. This puts applications back for years, possibly all the way to the next OS as unless the relational file system is native to the OS, then standard applications won't support it.

WinFS is worth waiting for and I think MS made a drastic mistake by putting off WinFS just for the sake of getting Longhorn out 6 months earlier.

posted on Monday, August 30, 2004 1:08 PM by travisowens

# @ Monday, August 30, 2004 2:08 PM

How about if it means a year earlier?

AlfredTwo

# @ Monday, August 30, 2004 3:21 PM

I personally think they thought it was okay to ditch WinFS 'coz it won't be very easily adopted by a lot of Windows users... but that's just me. :)

punzki

# @ Monday, August 30, 2004 3:39 PM

I have seen several comments saying that the add-on released shortly for Longhorn is just the beta anyway...at least in the first couple of months...so I imagine it'll be at least 6 months to a year before we even see a basic stable version of WinFS after Longhorn's launch. I'm really upset about loosing WinFS too...it's just the next evolution of the file system and it's a competitive advantage no one else has at this moment (the closest stable software to WinFS is Apple's OS X Finder from what I've seen).

AdamMB

# @ Monday, August 30, 2004 8:02 PM

AlfredTwo.... You missed the very point of my blog. Even if WinFS would have added 3 years to Longhorn, it's worth it. We're talking about 1/3 of the new features of longhorn gone down the tubes. Without WinFS native to the OS, programmers will not make explicit support for it in their apps until the next os, which is almost 7 years away from today. Now WinFS will just be a toy MS apps and power-users fiddle with. Punzi.... I think WinFS will be welcomed with open arms over time. Apps like iTunes have showed a search based system works well, especially with proper filters behind the scenes. Although power users don't like the interfacing (including myself) we'ell all eventually like it. I'm sure I'm not the first person to hate the Win95 interface the first time I used it, so much I actually went back to Win 3.11. Looking back I don't know wtf I was thinking. I absolutely love the interface and each improvement to it.

travisowens

# @ Monday, August 30, 2004 10:34 PM

I'm not sure the wait would be worth it to everyone. In fact I think that a lot of developers are more interesting in Avalon and Indigo than they are in WinFS. And while Avalon, Indigo and WinFS are the big three in Longhorn I think there are going to be a lot of other good things in there.

AlfredTwo

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