Windows 'Longhorn' Status Report
Last October, Microsoft provided a rare glimpse of the next version of Windows, code-named "Longhorn," several years before the operating system's expected release. It was a big risk for Microsoft to reveal internal plans that early.
But it's also a necessity for a company that relies so heavily on developers to get excited about its future products and have applications ready to go when those products launch.
In less than a year, the operating system looks radically different from Microsoft's year-ago plan.
What follows is a guide to the technologies slated for introduction in Microsoft's Longhorn wave and a report on each technology's fate.