News

Gates Q&A Appears to Leave WinFS Fate Open

In a Q&A session this month, Microsoft's chairman and chief software architect talked briefly about the next version of Windows, code-named "Longhorn," and seemed to be describing the WinFS technologies that are supposed to have been cut.

Talking about the future of technology during a session at the University of California Berkeley, Bill Gates took this question from an audience member: "I'm just wondering what does Microsoft have to offer for the future of Windows and for advanced users who like right now are migrating out to open source systems?"

In answering, Gates said, "We're working on a version called 'Longhorn' right now. And we've got some ambitious things we're doing."

Then, without further clarification, Gates went on to describe what sounded like WinFS:
"Today in an operating system you have to learn a lot of commands. You learn different commands for e-mail than files, the way you navigate photos is different than the way that you navigate music and what we'd like to do is get back to this thing where you have one store where all the information is there, your address book, your photos and it's a very rich store and so you can learn a small set of commands and so the way you navigate the address book, photos, music, mail, files, those are all the same and we think we can bring a simple conceptual understanding of where's my stuff, how do I move it between machines, how do I secure it by doing this?"

Gates' comments came about a month after Microsoft formally announced that WinFS would not be included in the RTM version of Longhorn, expected sometime in 2006. Gates could have been loosely referring to Microsoft's current plans to keep WinFS (Windows Future Storage) alive by releasing a beta version of the functionality at the same time as the Longhorn client ships.

About the Author

Scott Bekker is editor in chief of Redmond Channel Partner magazine.

Featured

  • Microsoft Appoints Althoff as New CEO for Commercial Business

    Microsoft CEO and chairman Satya Nadella on Wednesday announced the promotion of Judson Althoff to CEO of the company's commercial business, presenting the move as a response to the dramatic industrywide shifts caused by AI.

  • Broadcom Revamps VMware Partner Program Again

    Broadcom recently announced a significant update regarding its VMware Cloud Service Provider (VCSP) program, coinciding with the release of VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) 9.0, a key component in Broadcom’s private cloud strategy.

  • Closeup of the new Copilot keyboard key

    Microsoft Updates Copilot To Add Context-Sensitive Agents to Teams, SharePoint

    Microsoft has rolled out a new public preview for collaborative "always on" agents in Microsoft 365 Copilot, bringing enhanced, context-aware tools into Teams channels, meetings, SharePoint sites, Planner workstreams and Viva Engage communities.

  • Windows 365 Cloud Apps Now Available for Public Preview

    Microsoft announced this week that Windows 365 Cloud Apps are now available for public preview. This aims to allow IT administrators to stream individual Windows applications from the cloud, removing the need to assign Cloud PCs to every user.