I think you mean WinFS. Longhorn is a whole release codename, which encompassed many new features. Given that a beta WinFS eventually was made available as a

I think you mean WinFS. Longhorn is a whole release codename, which encompassed many new features. Given that a beta WinFS eventually was made available as a separate download years after even it's beta was slated to be released[1], I suspect they did what I outlined above - eventually. Otherwise, I'm not sure why a bolt on component to the system would require so long and miss deadlines like it did. 1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WinFS#Development https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WinFS#Development