Após terminar o Windows XP SP2 e entregá-lo ao público em geral, a Microsoft está concentrando seus esforços no Longhorn, além de mudar o seu roadmap, garantindo que este virá em 2006 sendo mais compatível e sem o sistema de arquivos WinFS - o qual a Microsoft garantiu que será lançado como um add-on para o sistema. A novidade é que a Microsoft anunciou oficialmente seus planos de lançar as tecnologias "Avalon" e "Índigo" para sistemas atuais como Windows XP e Windows Server 2003.
At PDC 2003, we laid out a vision of the future that was embodied by "Longhorn" and, from a developer perspective, the WinFX programming model. The PDC enabled us to show some of our technology to the world and to start soliciting feedback on where we were going, as well as show the world how serious we were about managed code.
Earlier this summer we emerged from shipping Windows XP Service Pack 2 and reviewed our "Longhorn" plans and all the feedback we've gotten since PDC. There was a lot of feedback to go through. The core feedback that came up time and again was "get the 'Longhorn' advances into the hands of customers sooner rather than later" and "make WinFX available on previous versions of Windows."
There are three core things that stand out for me in our plans:
- We are focusing on delivering "Longhorn" in 2006 and making appropriate tradeoffs, including reducing interdependencies in the OS to make this schedule.
- We plan to make the "Avalon" and "Indigo" pillars of WinFX available for Windows XP and Windows Server 2003.
- In order to deliver the "Longhorn" innovations to customers as quickly as possible, we now intend to deliver WinFS after the initial availability of the "Longhorn" client. We continue to be committed to WinFS. It is expected to beta when the "Longhorn" client is broadly available.
Mais informações: Longhorn Developer Center - Microsoft
