So I just saw this post over at the Microsoft Security Response Center Blog. To wit, ”
Monad will not be included in the final version of Windows Vista”. So this leaves me wondering, what is left in the famous “Longhorn” release?
It seems like the bulk of the new Windows operating system is a bunch of under the covers and catch-up technologies. Let’s take count:
Windows Presentation Foundation (Avalon) — Catching up with Apple’s Quartz and Interface Builder. “Look our UI can be as candy laden as OS-X!”
Least-privileged User Account — Catching up with just about every other OS out there. The UI here is eerily similar to Apple’s.
Data Recovery and Application Restart — This might be different enough from the Unix style init.d to be considered a feature. On the other hand, an Application Framework that made it easier to write bug-free software would obviate the need for this entirely.
I/O Cancellation Support — Welcome to the 90’s… Is there an OS that doesn’t do this today? (well besides Windows).
Windows Communication Foundation (Indigo) — This sounds really cool. I can’t tell if there’s a lot here, or if it’s just Microsoft’s implementation of existing protocols (Bonjour, WSDL, SAML, Kerberos, etc) that are already available on the Unix platforms.
Search — See Apple’s Tiger OS release
Windows Installer / One-Click — catch up with Apple, and it still looks like it’s worse.
Sync Services — iSync anyone?
XML Paper Specification — Oddly enough this seems to be a combination of XML / PDF / RDF/ Quicktime. It could be interesting, but it’s not clear what the advantage to anyone besides Microsoft is. As a developer this means that when Microsoft decides to compete with you, you’ve done the work of converting your file format for them.
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