Longhorn Without WinFS: Where's the Beef?

by Alex Woodie

It's been a year now since Microsoft previewed the next major release of Windows, codenamed "Longhorn," and so much has changed. What was once a much-anticipated new operating system with loads of new exciting features and no firm release date is now a date-driven launch of what will probably be incrementally improved OS. While Longhorn undoubtedly will an improvement on current Windows releases, it won't ship with the most promising new technology, called Windows File System, and some say WinFS will never see the light of day.

Before cutting WinFS from Longhorn this August, Microsoft touted WinFS as one of the major next steps in Windows computing technology. WinFS, which was chief software architect Bill Gate's pet project, was supposed to help solve some of the data search and storage problems that soak up too much of Windows users' and developers' time.

WinFS was supposed to implement an advanced new file system that combined elements of relational database technology and XML that would have fundamentally changed how we look at search and storage. WinFS would have been compatible with the older NTFS file system, while providing a new data model that would have opened up promising new ways to link together practically any form of data, including documents and movies. WinFS would allow you to "integrate things that weren't previously possible," was the way that Quentin Clark, the director of program management in charge of WinFS at Microsoft, put it.

Clark provided a good example of the powerful new capabilities we had to look forward to with WinFS during a 30-minute video available on Microsoft's Web site. Many people use filters in their e-mail programs to sort their messages. Some people even have the software set up so that they receive notification on their cell phones, depending on the message and the filter settings. With WinFS, users would be able to do the same sort of thing, but for practically any form of information, Clark says.

WinFS is promising for both home users and IT professionals. For the home user, this means Windows provides, out of the box, a single index to all of their data and documents, including the capability to sort them and link them in many ways. For developers already involved with building business applications on relational database engines, it means some of the data management and business rules that third-party applications previously provided on top of a relational data store could be provided as part of the operating system.

WinFS would have provided a complete stack of tools for programmers, beginning with backward compatibility to NTFS through "metadata handlers," for starters. For developers building on the new WinFS system, WinFS would provide a new data model, new "synchronization" and "InfoAgents" that would provide native execution of certain functions, and a range of APIs and Microsoft and user-definable schemas. Business applications such as ERP and CRM systems, content management and imaging, and many other programs could make use of this technology.

In August, Microsoft announced that it would cut WinFS from Longhorn in order to deliver the client version of the Longhorn OS by the end of 2006. Group vice president Jim Allchin said Microsoft "had to make some trade-offs to deliver the features that corporate customers, consumers, and OEMs are asking for, in a reasonable time frame." While Microsoft was still committed to WinFS, it said that component would only be in beta in late 2006.

Gartner says WinFS might not even get this far.

The IT analyst advised clients not to make any "strategic plans" based on the immediate availability of WinFS. What's more, because Microsoft has elected to improve the search capabilities of Windows outside of WinFS, Gartner said there was a 30 percent chance that WinFS might be dropped completely.

Besides WinFS, the other core elements of Longhorn were "Avalon," the code name for the new presentation subsystem, and "Indigo," the new communication subsystem. Because Microsoft plans to make Avalon and Indigo available to Windows XP and Windows 2003 Server before the release of Longhorn, Gartner says, these two operating systems--Windows XP and Windows Server 2003--are really where you want to be.