Btw, pomenuli smo nedavno i prve beta verzije Longhorna. Evo , stgao mi je mail od MSDN-a , pa kaze :
"...When is Longhorn Beta 1 coming?
There appears to be a bit of ambiguity as regards the date we can expect to see Longhorn Beta 1 being available. Longhorn is the code name for the next version of Windows which will exceed XP, and contains many technological enhancements which are eagerly anticipated. Beta 1 should be with us next year; however the real question is when, with two good sources giving different dates.
"According to internal documentation I first reviewed in late October, Microsoft is planning an aggressive schedule for its oft-delayed Longhorn successor to Windows XP and will ship the long-awaited Beta 1 release of that operating system on February 16. The latest release schedule notes that Microsoft will begin locking down the code for Beta 1 in early December 2004 and then enter the so-called escrow phase in early January."
"According to sources close to Microsoft, recent release schedules that have popped up on the internet regarding Longhorn are inaccurate and outdated. Today Windows Client Codename 'Longhorn' hit the milestone of M8-2. The next and final milestone before a beta is released is M9 which is currently due on 16th March 2005. Beta 1 of the much anticipated OS is due within May 2005. These new dates paint a picture of Beta 1 being released at this years WinHEC 2005 (late April) if it's indeed ready.
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Longhorn Server: 12 Variations?
There won't be just one Longhorn Server. Instead, there will be nearly a dozen customizable variants, partners say. While 2007 is still a long way off, Microsoft is making headway (at least on slide decks) with Longhorn Server, according to the Redmond software maker's partners. Before the Windows Server team can dedicate itself exclusively to Longhorn Server, it needs to roll out several other new releases, including Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1; the 64-bit and Compute Cluster versions of Windows Server 2003; and Windows Server.
That explains why Microsoft isn't talking publicly about Longhorn Server, beyond the broad-brush overview provided by Senior VP Bob Muglia back in May. Since that time, the plan for Longhorn Server changed fairly substantially, with Microsoft's decision to cut the backbone WinFS file system from the product.
Despite the WinFS move — or, perhaps as a result of it — Longhorn Server is still on track for 2007, Microsoft officials are telling some partners. Microsoft is expecting to deliver Longhorn Server Beta 1 in 2005, according to these partners, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
Microsoft also has said next-to-nothing about how it plans to license Longhorn Server. What is known is that Microsoft is working to make Longhorn Server a low-footprint product. Microsoft is planning to do this by allowing users to install only those services necessary for a particular "role." Microsoft publicly discussed this concept of roles for the first time at the Windows Hardware Engineering Conference in May.
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How Avalon Will Work In LH
Members of Microsoft's Developer Network got a sneak peek at Microsoft's Avalon windowing elements technology last week. Avalon, which will make the user interface much more than just a browser window, is slated to appear in Microsoft's Longhorn Windows release due out in 2006. Network members paid a fee for the Friday briefing.
Avalon will be used by developers to build a new generation of Web and intranet applications that Microsoft says will be more user friendly than today's page-by-static-page versions. "A lot of Web applications have run out of juice," says John Montgomery, director of product management in Microsoft's Developer Division. Competitive companies are looking for more ways to improve their customers' experience at their Web sites than the browser window currently allows.
"They're looking at ways to use smarter clients," Montgomery says, comparing today's browser window to the mainframe's "dumb" terminal. Unlike dumb terminals, at least browser windows can display graphics, but like its dim-witted cousin, the browser window can only show what a server tells it to. A smart client, also referred to as a "rich" client for the depth of the user interface, can take what a server sends it and work with it locally, using resources already resident on the PC. To make the Windows PC and laptop smarter, however, is going to take a lot of work.
When it arrives in mid-2006 with Longhorn, Avalon will include a smarter rendering engine. The rendering engine knows how to paint the screen in response to an application, and Avalon's will know whether the PC or laptop on which it's running has the extra memory needed to help run video, as many of today's PCs do. This will make it easier for developers to include a splice of video in an application, Montgomery says.
Avalon will include XAML, an XML-based markup language that "will be for the smart-client applications what HTML is to Web applications," Montgomery says. XAML will define the display of a smart-client application, but unlike HTML, it may be combined with any Microsoft .Net programming language ..."
To je to... Sada je sve jasno. :wink:
nema ga u add or remove programs niti u program files 
ops: