Thor
03-24-2000, 12:51 AM
Hi all I just received this from Serdar Yegulalp that writes the POWER WIN2000 newsletter. And I wanted to share this with you, so what is your opinion on this?
M$ is like never ending story, win2000 is just starting and then this comes. http://www.sysopt.com/forum/frown.gif
Thor
Quite:
"WINDOWS 2001: LEAKING SOON TO A NEWSGROUP NEAR YOU!
Tuesday I woke up to yet another explosion in my mailbox. No, this wasn't another flood of bug reports -- it was a *piracy* report, and of a product that isn't even supposed to be in alpha yet.
I speak of Whistler, the codename for "Windows 2001" -- the successor to Windows 2000 itself. Microsoft obviously decided not to wait around to rev the system yet again, and dove in and started building stuff
already.
I don't have most of this information confirmed, but this is what it looks like: Some intrepid soul within Microsoft got their hands on an internal build of the project -- one which was neither intended nor designed for any kind of out-of-the-lab evaluation. The build number on this specimen was 2211.1 (as opposed to Windows 2000's release-code
build of 2195). Sorry, no pictures -- I'll do my best to get them as soon as I can.
The only visibly new features, according to what I've been able to obtain, are an HTML-folder-style Control Panel. As far as features we can't see, there's been talk of the MARSCORE.DLL file being slipped into this build -- a piece of the technology that was originally going to drive the revised MSN. Given that I have yet to find anyone who
honestly cares a whit about MSN, I can see why they think their technological innovations might be put to better use. What I've seen of Mars reminds me strongly of a more fluidly-presented AOL interface -- lots of seamless control panels and big, friendly button bars.
If they plan on rolling this stuff into Win2K, all I ask for is an "Off" switch. I hated the HTML folder interface; the first thing I did when I installed Win2K was turn it off, globally. It was slow, piggish,
clumsy, and didn't help me get anything done. Other people will differ with me religiously on this point, but all I ask for is the option of not having to use it, or any other form of "desktop candy" that MS
feels justified in jamming into the 2K interface. (On a personal note, not one of my local Win2K users, a community of about twenty-odd people, uses the HTML-based folders.)
Whistler, in whatever form it comes in, is supposed to be out sometime in 2001. Given that it's based very strongly on Win2K, I suspect it will be little more than a glorified service pack. Whistler's followup,
codenamed Blackcomb, is due in 2002, but I doubt the name is little more than a placeholder for an as-yet-unknown feature set. In other words, even they're not sure what's coming -- they just know they want
to have a revision out that year. Makes sense to me, actually, given how glacial their product cycle for all breeds of Windows has been.
What strikes me the most is the fact that this is an *internal* build that got leaked. Someone with the keys to the Microsoft labs, as it were, managed to pry this one loose. It's fascinating, actually -- it's sort of like the PC equivalent of those movie sites run by fans who report back anonymized scoops from deep inside the industry. Whether
they're at all accurate is always
questionable, but they're fun to track.
And that in turn brings up the question of whether, when Whistler ships, it will contain any of these features. Given the experiences
I've had with previous Windows betas, I'd be willing to say anything is possible. During the final days of the Windows 95 beta cycle, I saw features being shoved in and shoved out and "repurposed" like mad.
So, what Whistler will ultimately be is anyone's guess. But if they're headed towards dumbing Win2K down, let me quote Samuel Goldwyn (one of the triumvirate who headed up MGM): "Include me out." Is this what they
really meant by the unification of the 9x and NT products -- dumber NT? I sure hope not. Easier-to-use NT isn't a bad goal, but please, not stupider."end Quite"
[This message has been edited by Thor (edited 03-24-2000).]
M$ is like never ending story, win2000 is just starting and then this comes. http://www.sysopt.com/forum/frown.gif
Thor
Quite:
"WINDOWS 2001: LEAKING SOON TO A NEWSGROUP NEAR YOU!
Tuesday I woke up to yet another explosion in my mailbox. No, this wasn't another flood of bug reports -- it was a *piracy* report, and of a product that isn't even supposed to be in alpha yet.
I speak of Whistler, the codename for "Windows 2001" -- the successor to Windows 2000 itself. Microsoft obviously decided not to wait around to rev the system yet again, and dove in and started building stuff
already.
I don't have most of this information confirmed, but this is what it looks like: Some intrepid soul within Microsoft got their hands on an internal build of the project -- one which was neither intended nor designed for any kind of out-of-the-lab evaluation. The build number on this specimen was 2211.1 (as opposed to Windows 2000's release-code
build of 2195). Sorry, no pictures -- I'll do my best to get them as soon as I can.
The only visibly new features, according to what I've been able to obtain, are an HTML-folder-style Control Panel. As far as features we can't see, there's been talk of the MARSCORE.DLL file being slipped into this build -- a piece of the technology that was originally going to drive the revised MSN. Given that I have yet to find anyone who
honestly cares a whit about MSN, I can see why they think their technological innovations might be put to better use. What I've seen of Mars reminds me strongly of a more fluidly-presented AOL interface -- lots of seamless control panels and big, friendly button bars.
If they plan on rolling this stuff into Win2K, all I ask for is an "Off" switch. I hated the HTML folder interface; the first thing I did when I installed Win2K was turn it off, globally. It was slow, piggish,
clumsy, and didn't help me get anything done. Other people will differ with me religiously on this point, but all I ask for is the option of not having to use it, or any other form of "desktop candy" that MS
feels justified in jamming into the 2K interface. (On a personal note, not one of my local Win2K users, a community of about twenty-odd people, uses the HTML-based folders.)
Whistler, in whatever form it comes in, is supposed to be out sometime in 2001. Given that it's based very strongly on Win2K, I suspect it will be little more than a glorified service pack. Whistler's followup,
codenamed Blackcomb, is due in 2002, but I doubt the name is little more than a placeholder for an as-yet-unknown feature set. In other words, even they're not sure what's coming -- they just know they want
to have a revision out that year. Makes sense to me, actually, given how glacial their product cycle for all breeds of Windows has been.
What strikes me the most is the fact that this is an *internal* build that got leaked. Someone with the keys to the Microsoft labs, as it were, managed to pry this one loose. It's fascinating, actually -- it's sort of like the PC equivalent of those movie sites run by fans who report back anonymized scoops from deep inside the industry. Whether
they're at all accurate is always
questionable, but they're fun to track.
And that in turn brings up the question of whether, when Whistler ships, it will contain any of these features. Given the experiences
I've had with previous Windows betas, I'd be willing to say anything is possible. During the final days of the Windows 95 beta cycle, I saw features being shoved in and shoved out and "repurposed" like mad.
So, what Whistler will ultimately be is anyone's guess. But if they're headed towards dumbing Win2K down, let me quote Samuel Goldwyn (one of the triumvirate who headed up MGM): "Include me out." Is this what they
really meant by the unification of the 9x and NT products -- dumber NT? I sure hope not. Easier-to-use NT isn't a bad goal, but please, not stupider."end Quite"
[This message has been edited by Thor (edited 03-24-2000).]