WinFS Goes to Beta

by Alex Woodie

Remember the Windows File System (WinFS), the revolutionary new way that Windows was to organize and store data? It had been one of the pillars of the new "Longhorn" version of Windows that Microsoft is currently working on, at least until Microsoft yanked WinFS from Longhorn last year to speed up the development process and hit its Longhorn deadline. Well, apparently work on WinFS is going along quite fine, thank you, considering that the first WinFS beta was delivered this week, several months ahead of schedule.

It's been exactly a year since Microsoft pulled WinFS from its Longhorn development effort to make its ship deadline, and left people wondering whether the software juggernaut had lost its ability to innovate. Sure, Longhorn still had "Avalon," the code-name for the new presentation subsystem, and "Indigo," the new communication subsystem, which collectively are known as WinFX, as well as some nifty user interface tricks, like see-through windows. But WinFS was the crown jewel of Longhorn, the part that would prove Microsoft was still on the cutting edge.

Because--let's make no bones about it--WinFS, when it finally ships, will be revolutionary. The file system, which will be based on the SQL Server relational database and make extensive use of XML, will implement an entirely new data model, and change the way that people and developers work with, and write applications for, the Windows operating system.

Quentin Clark, who is heading up the WinFS development effort at Microsoft's campus in Redmond, Wash., explained the significance of the WinFS development effort in a recent interview with Microsoft's Channel 9. "I have little toddlers who will never know anything but WinFS if we do this right," Clark says. "We are going to replace the file system forever."

When WinFS finally replaces the generations-old legacies of FAT and NTFS file systems, it will provide users with new ways to search for documents and images, and will give desktop software publishers a new generation of animation tools. But WinFS is also important for Microsoft's server and business applications strategy.

WinFS is central to developing the next generation of "rich" applications, according to Peter Spiro, a former DEC executive who now works in Microsoft's SQL Server division, and who was part of the team that started developing WinFS in 2002. In his recent post to the WinFS team blog, titled "Bored With Software," Spiro describes a meeting his team had with Ray Ozzie, the developer of Lotus Notes, as well as the founder of Groove Networks, in which Ozzie expressed his frustration with having to build an entire new layer on top of the operating system to build the type of application he had in mind with Groove. This layer needed to provide storage beyond just a file system, and needed to provide synchronization capabilities, advanced security mechanisms, the capability to model schemas in the storage system, and provide search capabilities.

"His comment to me was that Microsoft should build such a platform," Spiro says. "He was right; and I told him we had already started on it, and that it was called WinFS."

Out of the limelight for the last year (although never far from memory), WinFS is now starting to look like a real product. The first beta, which is available on Microsoft's MSDN developer's Web site, implements the basic core relational data store capabilities, and will provide a platform for developers to provide more feedback to Microsoft. Microsoft will also be distributing copies of the WinFS beta at the upcoming Professional Developer's Conference (PDC) 2005, which is being held in two weeks in Los Angeles. PDC 2005, like past PDCs, will feature many tracks on WinFS.

One of the important changes that Microsoft has made with the WinFS beta as a result of developer feedback from early builds released at past PDCs is platform support. While WinFS had been targeted for Windows Longhorn and Windows Vista generation of operating systems, the current beta release of WinFS also runs on Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2). However, the company has not made a final decision as to which operating systems will be supported when the product is shipped, or released to manufacturing (RTM) in Microsoft's parlance.

All this is happening a lot sooner than many had anticipated. Many weren't expecting the first beta of WinFS until 2006. With more betas and release candidates required before WinFS goes to RTM, Microsoft looks on schedule to put WinFS into the hands of developers and users about the same time, or soon thereafter, as it ships Windows Vista, currently slated for the 2006 holiday shopping season, and Windows Longhorn Server, which we're expecting in the first half of 2007.