Screenshot Shots Shown Below

Longhorn Alpha Leaks - Microsoft's Windows Longhorn Alpha Leaks to the Web: 12/03/02 

Microsoft's next version of Windows, code-named Longhorn, made its way onto Internet sites (available on mIRC) in early November. Microsoft Windows XP experienced a similar leak during the alpha stages.
The news of a leaked Microsoft's Longhorn build pop-up sometime last month when screen shots posted to Windows hack sites purported to showcase pictures of the next-generation operating system. The leak provides a small glimpse into Microsoft's future plans.
Some of the rumored changes are, the sidebar can be enabled via Taskbar settings and uses XML to display customizable tiles such as a clock, virtual desktop manager and Internet search.
Microsoft has replaced the standard Display Properties dialog with an incomplete XML-based configuration panel.
The rumored release date for Microsoft Longhorn is late 2004 to early 2005 but, has not yet been set by Microsoft.
Windows LongHorn Summary New Features Announced: New hot patching technology, hot swapping technology, new 3D graphics architecture, and new storage system.
This is a new desktop OS, planned for release in 2003 or 2004.


New File System

In addition to security enhancements, Windows "Longhorn" will also include a SQL Server file system. This new file system, which Microsoft has been wanting to implement in Windows for over a decade, will allow users to more efficiently locate and work with information regardless of format or location.

The User Interface

Windows "Longhorn" will include an improved interface which will extend on the task-based design first introduced in Windows XP. The start menu in Windows "Longhorn" will most likely become a task pane which will occupy the right or left side portion of the screen.
The user interface in "Longhorn" will also make full use of 3D rendering technology, which will deliver a much better visual appearance of Windows.
While not much more is known about "Longhorn" at this time, here are some other new features slated for the release:
DVD Burning Building on the CD burning capabilities in Windows XP, "Longhorn" will allows users to burn DVDs as well. Microsoft plans on supporting the DVD+RW format.
Windows Movie Maker 2 Windows Movie Maker will be rebuilt in "Longhorn" and include a variety of new features. This new version of Windows Movie Maker will be based upon Microsoft Producer, a PowerPoint 2002 add-on.
Improved Windows Powered Smart Display Support Windows Longhorn will improve upon the Windows Powered Smart Display technology introduced in Windows XP Service Pack 1. Specifically, Windows "Longhorn" will allow for two people to be logged on to the same system, one using the primary display and the other with a smart display. Improvements in speed can also be expected.


Windows Longhorn megaproject:

Longhorn, once upon a time the intermediate point release on the way from Windows XP to Blackcomb, the real big one, is now not-a-point-release, but is instead "a radically new version of Windows, code-named Longhorn, which, if all goes well, will come out sometime after 2005."
The big Microsoft OS projects that take a long time and overrun have been heavily influenced by Bill he wants them to be great, keeps coming up with stuff that has to go in, they get bigger and bigger and take longer and longer. Bill is now chief software architect, driving Longhorn development, and from what he has to say about what Longhorn has to be and do, it's clear that the OS as currently envisaged falls into the 'lots of stuff, major project' category. Actually, according to Bill, it's the equivalent of "many moon shots."
Bill and his teams are starting with a clean sheet of paper, rethinking what a computer operating system actually is, from the way documents and other data are stored and shared to the way people interact with the machine. Gates' geeks are completely overhauling the OS and they'll also have to redesign most of the company's other software products and services to take full advantage, including the MSN online service, its server applications, and especially Microsoft Office."
Microsoft's plans to put a database at the core of the OS file system, originally in Blackcomb but then in Longhorn instead, mean that in this case it has to be true. Now the applications line has to be rebuilt, and yes, MSN morphs once more.
The decision to go with all of the major stuff in Longhorn was taken last August, at the prompting of Steve Ballmer, according to Gates. Prior to this the plan had been to make changes incrementally, but Ballmer apparently voted for a big bang, with all of the components synchronized, instead.
Gates's list of what's planned for Longhorn is largely user's eye view, classic eye-candy of the sort that gets bolted on to the company's interim releases, but given that we're currently talking about a major overhaul, these ought to be more integral to the finished product than has often been the case in the past. Gates alludes to the database angle by asking of current operating systems: "Why are my document files stored one way, my contacts another way, and my e-mail and instant-messaging buddy list still another, and why aren't they related to my calendar or to one another and easy to search en masse?"
Gates also suggests using the computer for screening phone calls and emails, getting in touch with you when you're out of the your office, letting you pick up your data from anywhere, with any device, arranging meetings for you, making it easy to set up web sites that can do group scheduling, finding and reading documents, etc etc.
Gates has had a list of "ten key Longhorn scenarios" he has had devised, and regrettably only six of them, People, Annotation, Real Time Communications, Storage, Authentication and Security, and New Look. Each of these categories has however had a developer team assigned to it, which could be bad news, depending on how good or bad the coordination is. Further detail on what Microsoft actually means by each of these scenarios will also be necessary before one can judge their validity.