WinFS: here is your death warrant (4 Viewers)

[Martin]

So for those who don't remember.. Microsoft promised that one of the most exciting new features of Windows Longhorn Vista is was going to be a new filesystem called WinFS. Well, in fact it wasn't meant to be a new filesystem, it was just a virtual filesystem sitting on top of ntfs called WinFS. And it was going to be really cool, in that you could forget all about keeping track of your files, WinFS would be database-based and you could search your whole system in a few seconds to find every file you ever misplaced. And there was going to be rich mime type handling as well, so that pictures, video, audio and all that goodness would be handled per type basis so that you could intelligently separate your essay about Michael Jackson in the 4th grade from your compilation of Michael Jackson mp3s in your media collection. And so on and so forth. That's just what I remember, I'm sure there was lots more promised.

For the record, such a thing already exists, albeit possibly in a less exhuberant form than Microsoft described it, in both MacOsX, linux (in form of beagle and other flavors) and even on Windows with Google desktop search (which I've never tried).

So that's one of the major new features of Vista, slated in recent times for a Service Pack release at some point following Vista itself, now completely dropped.

http://slashdot.org/articles/06/06/24/2047214.shtml

But fear not, there will be plenty of new eye candy for everyone to yell woopdedoo when Vista ships, only to curse it a month later, because it probably still will drive people crazy.

 

Buy on AliExpress.com

[Rami]

Either your network or ip address has been banned from Slashdot

...due to script flooding that originated from your network or ip address -- or this IP might have been used to post comments designed to break web browser rendering. Or you crawled us with a rude robot, especially one that doesn't understand RFCs very well.

If you feel that this is unwarranted, feel free to include your IP address (212.xxx.xxx.xxx) in the subject of an email, and we will examine why there is a ban. If you fail to include the IP address (again, in the subject!), then your message will be deleted and ignored. I mean come on, we're good, we're not psychic.

If you think your IP number is different from 212.xxx.xxx.xxx, tell us both.

If you are using a browser with some kind of add-on that crawls or caches pages for you, tell us what it is.

Since you can't read the FAQ because you're banned, here's the relevant portion:

 

[Martin]

 

[mikhail]

Well, for the benefit of the IP banned among us then:

"Over at the WinFS Team Blog, Quentin Clark states that Microsoft no longer plans to ship WinFS as a standalone software component. Instead, portions of the underlying technology will be included with the next release of SQL Server (codename Katmai) and ADO.NET. Does this spell the end for the true relational storage paradigm that Microsoft has been promising since Windows 95?"

IP banned... *snigger*

 

[Rami]

I never visited slashdot.com and I don't even know what it is....so why am i IP blocked??

 

[mikhail]

I never visited slashdot.com and I don't even know what it is....so why am i IP blocked??

Probably your entire country is blocked.

It's a technical news site ("News for Nerds"), specialising in Microsoft bashing and heavy criticism of Digital Rights Management (DRM), censorship laws and legislation that curbs public freedoms.

 

[Martin]

and some occasional discussion about linux/unix as well in fact

 

[Rami]

and some occasional discussion about linux/unix as well in fact

Now thats my cup of tea

Must circumvent censorship methinks:faq1:

 

[Chxta]

Microshaft...

 

[Majed]

So for those who don't remember.. Microsoft promised that one of the most exciting new features of Windows Longhorn Vista is was going to be a new filesystem called WinFS. Well, in fact it wasn't meant to be a new filesystem, it was just a virtual filesystem sitting on top of ntfs called WinFS. And it was going to be really cool, in that you could forget all about keeping track of your files, WinFS would be database-based and you could search your whole system in a few seconds to find every file you ever misplaced. And there was going to be rich mime type handling as well, so that pictures, video, audio and all that goodness would be handled per type basis so that you could intelligently separate your essay about Michael Jackson in the 4th grade from your compilation of Michael Jackson mp3s in your media collection. And so on and so forth. That's just what I remember, I'm sure there was lots more promised.

For the record, such a thing already exists, albeit possibly in a less exhuberant form than Microsoft described it, in both MacOsX, linux (in form of beagle and other flavors) and even on Windows with Google desktop search (which I've never tried).

So that's one of the major new features of Vista, slated in recent times for a Service Pack release at some point following Vista itself, now completely dropped.

http://slashdot.org/articles/06/06/24/2047214.shtml

But fear not, there will be plenty of new eye candy for everyone to yell woopdedoo when Vista ships, only to curse it a month later, because it probably still will drive people crazy.

Vista's obviously a rip-off, but that probably won't stop it from being a huge success as many people never explored the sea of alternatives (or sadly, can't as MS has many of us by the throught).


Check out this page that has MAC presentations (for existing features) based on Bill Gate's voice from Vista presentations. (The second one is relavent to the searching feature that you mentioned)
http://tauquil.com/archives/2006/01/06/re-introducing-the-real-windows-vista

...

By the way, Google Desktop is convenient, but for Windows, the best tool is Copernic Desktop Search. It's no "Spotlight," but it works very well.

 

[Martin]

Vista's obviously a rip-off, but that probably won't stop it from being a huge success as many people never explored the sea of alternatives (or sadly, can't as MS has many of us by the throught).

They bundle it with new computers and you can't say no if you wanted to. That's the source of the problem.

Check out this page that has MAC presentations (for existing features) based on Bill Gate's voice from Vista presentations. (The second one is relavent to the searching feature that you mentioned)
http://tauquil.com/archives/2006/01/06/re-introducing-the-real-windows-vista

Windows doesn't have much that other OSes don't have. A feature comparison doesn't make a lot of sense, because linux can do a billion things Windows can't. While Mac is still caught in the "we have feature X, do you have feature X?" lameness because they're commercial, at least they're ahead of the game.

 

[Majed]

They bundle it with new computers and you can't say no if you

Windows doesn't have much that other OSes don't have. A feature comparison doesn't make a lot of sense, because linux can do a billion things Windows can't. While Mac is still caught in the "we have feature X, do you have feature X?" lameness because they're commercial, at least they're ahead of the game.

It's obvious that Apple is indeed pulling that kind of commercial campaign, but to shake Windows, you have to appeal to the masses. However, you have to admit that most of their "feature Xs" are pretty damn innovative, and useful for the general public. (The aesthetics are a plus too not to mention an advertising tool in itself )

I won't attempt to put Linux down as it's an incredible project(s), but I see MAC as the more balanced solution.