MICROSOFT Windows Longhorn

What is Windows Longhorn?

Longhorn is the codename for the next-generation version of Microsoft's flagship Windows operating system.

IT is the next major desktop Windows release, which follows Windows XP. Windows Longhorn will includes a number of new features including a revised task-based (or "iterative") user interface, an extensible, dock-like, Sidebar, and a SQL Server 2003-based storage engine called WinFS (Windows Future Storage).

Features of Longhorn

• Longhorn will feature a task-based (or "iterative") interface that goes far beyond the task-based interface found today in Windows XP.

• Long Horn will feature WinFS, a new file system based around relational database technology (NTFS will still be available)

• Longhorn will require 3D video hardware to render special effects that will make the screen more photorealistic and deep.

• Longhorn Features Improved Security. Longhorn will optionally include the Palladium security technology Microsoft is developing with Intel and AMD

• Longhorn will include new anti-virus (AV) APIs that will help developers more easily integrate their wares into the base OS.

• Longhorn will include integrated recordable DVD capabilities and will work with every type of recordable DVD format. Digital media enthusiasts will be able to copy video from a digital camcorder directly to recordable DVD, bypassing the system's hard drive entirely, if desired.

• Longhorn will include a new Setup routine that installs the OS in about 15 minutes.

• Longhorn will feature hundreds of new APIs that will let provide access to the new system's features. The Win32 API from previous Windows versions is being replaced by a new .NET-based API called WinFX, for example. It will also feature a new communications and collaboration subsystem, dubbed Indigo.

The visual display in Longhorn is awesome, simply awesome because…..

Longhorn includes...

• an enhanced desktop experience that includes advanced 3D graphics capabilities and driver functionality.

• a new display driver model that will feature radically advanced functionality, stability, and reliability.

• a radically redesigned user interface with a dynamically composed desktop featuring compelling new visual effects like graphically tumbling, rotating, and warped windows.

• hardware accelerated and resolution independent anti-aliased 2D scalable graphics that will expose functionality based on the capabilities of your system's 3D video hardware.

• a rich 3D graphics architecture that is integrated directly into the Windows UI.