Longhorn

Earlier today, we announced a couple of decisions from Microsoft. I have heard a number of queries from developers about what this really means and wanted some clarification. In a nutshell, the decisions that we announced earlier today are:

   1. We are targeting broad availability of Windows “Longhorn” Client in 2006; we continue to target Windows “Longhorn” Server for 2007.

   2. “Avalon” and “Indigo”, will also run on Windows XP and Windows Server 2003. 

3.

WinFS will ship after Longhorn client. WinFS will beta when Longhorn Client ships.

One of the things that we have heard loud and clear from our developer customers in particular is the need to make our WinFX API layer on a broader range of Windows Operating Systems than what we had originally planned. We heard this loud and clear at the 2003 PDC. We prioritized Windows XP SP2 security enhancements over a lot of other things in the last year. Now that we have shipped Windows XP SP2, we took a look at where we are, internalized the feedback that we heard from you all and ended up with this plan.

So what does this all mean to you?

Microsoft remains completely committed to managed code, WinFS, Avalon, Indigo and Longhorn. For those of you who were experimenting with WinFS on Longhorn, it means that you’ll be able to build on the WinFS beta when Longhorn ships. For those of you who’ve been using other parts of WinFX like Avalon and Indigo, it means you’ll be able to run your applications on a broader installed base of systems including Windows XP and Windows Server 2003. For everyone, it means “keep writing managed code on the .NET Framework today.”

Namaste!