4 ms·

I think LH refers to what appeared later as Windows Vista. It's kind of nice to see a Microsoft executive had the same opinion of this product as their customer

I think LH refers to what appeared later as Windows Vista. It's kind of nice to see a Microsoft executive had the same opinion of this product as their customers.

johanj 5y ago
Yes, the codename for Windows Vista was Longhorn.
zokier 5y ago
No, that's the opposite, read the followup: https://twitter.com/TechEmails/status/1418259351140188166?s=20 https://twitter.com/TechEmails/status/1418259351140188166?s=...
- hdjjhhvvhga 5y ago
  When reading his reply[0] it's obvious he was right in the original email when he said he saw no solution to this problem. They even tried to start from scratch and the result was still arguably the worst Windows edition ever. [0] http://web.archive.org/web/20070107170621/http://windowsvistablog.com/blogs/windowsvista/archive/2006/12/12/title.aspx http://web.archive.org/web/20070107170621/http://windowsvist...
  - pvitz 5y ago
    In my opinion, Windows ME was worse. I decided to use Windows 2000 and then XP. 2000 was very stable compared to what we were used to with the 95/98 series.
  - some-guy 5y ago
    I'll be honest, I didn't notice many differences between Windows 7 and Windows Vista SP1. I agree Windows Vista was absolutely terrible when it came out, but so was XP. And so was 98. And 95.
- Razengan 5y ago
  The follow up is basically “oops I shouldn’t have been caught thinking that out loud” I mean he’s calling Vista a “phenomenal product”, for Fourier’s sake
wesnerm2 5y ago
Longhorn was a failed version of Windows after Windows XP and before Windows Vista. Longhorn was planned to be a dramatic follow-up version of Windows XP in which the Windows shell was rewritten on top of .NET with three main pillars: communication (WCF), presentation (WPF), and data (WinFS). WinFS was a new filesystem based on a relational database engine (SQL Server). Longhorn was similar to a previous failed Windows release (Cairo). Longhorn was built on .NET whereas Cairo was built on COM. Longhorn used a new filesystem based on SQL whereas Cairo had a new object-oriented file store. Longhorn use Avalon for the shell with concepts for people/contacts whereas the Cairo used Outlook. Before it became an Office application, Outlook started life as the new Cairo shell in which emails, calendars, task were integrated into explorer. You could do advanced grouping, tagging, and filtering on files. In fact, the first version of Outlook, Outlook 97, as an Office application allowed you to view the file system just like emails. Longhorn was several years late before the Windows release was canceled with no clear end date in sight. A reset was directed to produced an incremental new release of Windows called Windows Vista. It would be purely native and ship in a year and a half. The .NET dependency "Bet on .NET" was jettisoned, and all Window's dependencies needed to be fully released rather than works in progressed. WCF, WPF were released independently. WinFS was killed because it was too slow. See https://longhorn.ms/the-reset/ https://longhorn.ms/the-reset/
- pjmlp 5y ago
  Apparently Cairo's lesson wasn't good enough, so they ended up rewriting all Longhorn stuff mostly in COM and since it was such a good idea we got WinRT (IInspectable + .NET metadata) as "improvement". Which kind of was, had the respective teams not botched the whole idea with WinRT, UAP, UWP, replacing C++/CX with toolless C++/WinRT, left .NET Native stagnate,.... So now we get WinUI, Reunion sorry AppSDK, and the whole marketing with deemphasis on the COM love of WinRT high marketing push. I feel if there was some actual real cooperation across all the business units instead of the feudal wars, either Cairo or Longhorn would have worked out quite well. What to expect when it was easier for contractors to navigate across units, then asking for stuff directly.
  - hdjjhhvvhga 5y ago

I think LH refers to what appeared later as Windows Vista. It's kind of nice to see a Microsoft executive had the same opinion of this product as their customers.

johanj 5y ago

Yes, the codename for Windows Vista was Longhorn.

zokier 5y ago

No, that's the opposite, read the followup: https://twitter.com/TechEmails/status/1418259351140188166?s=20 https://twitter.com/TechEmails/status/1418259351140188166?s=...

hdjjhhvvhga 5y ago
When reading his reply[0] it's obvious he was right in the original email when he said he saw no solution to this problem. They even tried to start from scratch and the result was still arguably the worst Windows edition ever. [0] http://web.archive.org/web/20070107170621/http://windowsvistablog.com/blogs/windowsvista/archive/2006/12/12/title.aspx http://web.archive.org/web/20070107170621/http://windowsvist...
- pvitz 5y ago
  In my opinion, Windows ME was worse. I decided to use Windows 2000 and then XP. 2000 was very stable compared to what we were used to with the 95/98 series.
- some-guy 5y ago
  I'll be honest, I didn't notice many differences between Windows 7 and Windows Vista SP1. I agree Windows Vista was absolutely terrible when it came out, but so was XP. And so was 98. And 95.
Razengan 5y ago
The follow up is basically “oops I shouldn’t have been caught thinking that out loud” I mean he’s calling Vista a “phenomenal product”, for Fourier’s sake

wesnerm2 5y ago

Longhorn was a failed version of Windows after Windows XP and before Windows Vista. Longhorn was planned to be a dramatic follow-up version of Windows XP in which the Windows shell was rewritten on top of .NET with three main pillars: communication (WCF), presentation (WPF), and data (WinFS). WinFS was a new filesystem based on a relational database engine (SQL Server). Longhorn was similar to a previous failed Windows release (Cairo). Longhorn was built on .NET whereas Cairo was built on COM. Longhorn used a new filesystem based on SQL whereas Cairo had a new object-oriented file store. Longhorn use Avalon for the shell with concepts for people/contacts whereas the Cairo used Outlook. Before it became an Office application, Outlook started life as the new Cairo shell in which emails, calendars, task were integrated into explorer. You could do advanced grouping, tagging, and filtering on files. In fact, the first version of Outlook, Outlook 97, as an Office application allowed you to view the file system just like emails. Longhorn was several years late before the Windows release was canceled with no clear end date in sight. A reset was directed to produced an incremental new release of Windows called Windows Vista. It would be purely native and ship in a year and a half. The .NET dependency "Bet on .NET" was jettisoned, and all Window's dependencies needed to be fully released rather than works in progressed. WCF, WPF were released independently. WinFS was killed because it was too slow. See https://longhorn.ms/the-reset/ https://longhorn.ms/the-reset/

pjmlp 5y ago
Apparently Cairo's lesson wasn't good enough, so they ended up rewriting all Longhorn stuff mostly in COM and since it was such a good idea we got WinRT (IInspectable + .NET metadata) as "improvement". Which kind of was, had the respective teams not botched the whole idea with WinRT, UAP, UWP, replacing C++/CX with toolless C++/WinRT, left .NET Native stagnate,.... So now we get WinUI, Reunion sorry AppSDK, and the whole marketing with deemphasis on the COM love of WinRT high marketing push. I feel if there was some actual real cooperation across all the business units instead of the feudal wars, either Cairo or Longhorn would have worked out quite well. What to expect when it was easier for contractors to navigate across units, then asking for stuff directly.
- hdjjhhvvhga 5y ago