Notes From the Longhorn Lab
I spent a weekend at the "Longhorn Lab," where a group of invited Featured Community website representatives, bloggers, and journalists were invited to spend a few days as Microsoft's guests in Redmond. It included a long day (9 am to 12 mid) in one of their lab buildings. We spent much of the day in seminars and presentations, a classroom of sorts, and then we played with Vista Beta 1 (about 5 days prior to its release).
It wasn't so much pre-release research as it was a "sneak peek" at Vista and information for us to take back to our readers and members.
I am going to relay some of my observations from last weekend. Now that I am allowed to post some of the information, I will post an ongoing series of notes which I feel are relevant to the release of Windows Vista Beta 1.
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Versions of Vista
For quite some time, reports have surfaced regarding the idea of many versions of Longhorn, now Vista. This topic naturally came up. We did attempt to extract some details, and Microsoft acknowledged that there will be "multiple SKU's," but would neither confirm nor deny the number.
This is a list that is considered a possibility:
Vista Starter Edition
Analogous to Windows XP Starter Edition.
Vista Home Edition
Analogous to Windows XP Home Edition.
Vista Premium/Media Center Edition
A premium superset of Home Edition that includes the Media Center functionality.
Vista Professional Edition
Analogous to Windows XP Tablet PC Edition.
Vista Small Business Edition
A new product edition aimed at the small business market. Currently very similar to Professional Edition.
Vista Mobility/Tablet PC Edition
Analogous to Windows XP Tablet PC Edition.
Vista "Uber" Edition
A new product edition that bridges the consumer and business versions and includes all of the features from the Home, Premium, Pro, Small Business, and Tablet PC Editions (but not Starter Edition).
We offered up the suggestion of a
Vista "Power User" Edition (or "Geek" Edition). Most of us at the Lab salivated at the thought of that.
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The Google "Noncompete" Case
I had an extensive conversation with a number of staffers, including some who had worked with Lee at MS. We talked about noncompete clauses as they relate to theft of trade secrets and other issues.
I agreed with them that this was an especially blatant and obvious violation. Sometimes noncompete clauses can be thrown out. But in this case, it wasn't just that Lee was hired by a competitor -- it was that he was basically hired
from the MS search team to the Google search team. He was bringing the search technology that he had helped develop at MS directly over to a competitor in the exact same field.
Rarely is a case so clear-cut. I am not surprised in the least that MS won this case and they deserve it. This is exactly the kind of action that a noncompete clause is designed to prevent, and certainly theft of trade secrets, misappropriation of intellectual propoerty, in such a deliberate fashion, cannot be allowed to take place.
I don't know what Google was thinking.
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The Sidebar (Again)
At WinHEC, I had lunch with Joe Peterson, Vice President of Product Development for the Windows division, and Shanen Boettcher, lead developer for Longhorn. Joe is no longer involved with Longhorn/Vista. But we discussed it at the time.
I wrote here:
http://www.pronetworks.org/forum/viewt ... 865#439865
"Why was the Sidebar pulled? Joe Peterson said that MS had originally assumed that more people would have widescreen monitors by now, or dual monitor setups. The idea was that a sidebar on a widescreen or dual monitor wouldn't take up that much real estate. But it hasn't happened. And they don't see it happening by the end of next year. So the basic thinking behind it fell away."
We discussed this again at the Longhorn Lab. I cannot reveal too many details about the discussion, but I can tell you that the Sidebar may come back. The reasoning behind it is complicated. But it is now a possibility.
Many of us have been using Desktop Sidebar, and just yesterday a new Build came out which runs on Vista. I tested it tonight, in fact.
http://www.pronetworks.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=60613
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Random Thoughts
'Blackcomb' is the code name for the next version of Windows which will follow Vista. It is a code name just as 'Longhorn' was a code name and is only temporary. Microsoft has started working on 'Blackcomb.' Some of us know about it from doing research and keeping up on the latest Microsoft news. Others have sources with the company. I have been representing PROnet at various conferences and events that Microsoft has invited us to attend. We discussed Blackcomb a bit but I cannot say much.
Vista uses NTFS. BTW WinFS does not stand for Windows File System...it stands for Windows Future Storage.
So is the new Vista Beta 1 as good as they say? Hmm...well, that depends. What are you comparing it to? If you've been using XP, it is a huge leap forward. If you've been using the Longhorn pre-Alpha Builds, it's much better but similar to what you've seen. In either case, Beta 1 has only about 1/3 the User Experience features that Beta 2 will have. So as good as it is, it will be 3 times better come the next Beta, at least in terms of eye candy.
Just remember that it is a Beta, and by definition, it is still a work in progress. It is not meant to be used as a primary OS (although many do). Very few of us have been using it long enough to really review it in depth but we will and you'll find all the info posted here.
LDDM (Longhorn Display Driver Model) drivers are simply drivers that are supported by the LDDM. ATI and nVidia both just released drivers for Vista.
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Party Pictures
First, just to identify where we are and who this is. All the pictures except first and last were taken at a private party at <b>Chris Pirillo's</b> house on Saturday. Chris runs Lockergnome, which co-sponsors a large conference with MS every year called Gnomedex. He also used to be on TechTV, which is where many people know him from.
http://www.lockergnome.com/ (Scroll down the page and check it out)
Here is his blog:
http://chris.pirillo.com/
<b>Robert McLaws</b> runs Longhorn Blogs:
http://www.longhornblogs.com/
<b>Ryan Hoffman</b> has several sites. He was one of the x64 VIP's with me at WinHEC. His main site is Extended64:
http://www.extended64.com/
<b>Steve Sinchak</b> runs TweakXP and TweakVista:
http://www.tweakxp.com/
http://www.tweakvista.com/
Check out his new freeware app TweakVista 0.50:
http://www.pronetworks.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=60322
<b>Jed Rose</b> works for MS and runs the Expert Zone Communities program, including the top 27 which are Featured Communities. That includes us. Jed helped organize and invited me to the LH Lab. He also helped organize the x64 Event.
<b>Brandon Paddock</b> works for MS and is part of the MSN Division, although he works on what is now called Windows Desktop Search (it was MSN Desktop Search). Here is his blog:
http://geekswithblogs.net/bpaddock
<b>Jarrod Baldwin</b> works for MS Windows Update and Microsoft Update.
<i>Don't forget that some pictures you have to click a 2nd time when you get to ImageShack to blow them up bigger.</i>
<a href="http://img43.imageshack.us/my.php?image=p1010018editedlarge2ib.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://img43.imageshack.us/img43/7290/p1010018editedlarge2ib.th.jpg" border="0"></a>
Robert & me in the lobby of our hotel, the Marriott Residence Inn at the Redmond Town Center
<a href="http://img43.imageshack.us/my.php?image=p1010023editedlarge1wb.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://img43.imageshack.us/img43/1829/p1010023editedlarge1wb.th.jpg" border="0"></a>
Some of Chris' setup. He has about a half dozen computers
<a href="http://img43.imageshack.us/my.php?image=p1010024editedlarge5ap.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://img43.imageshack.us/img43/250/p1010024editedlarge5ap.th.jpg" border="0"></a>
Screenie. Hehe (that's actually XP
)
<a href="http://img43.imageshack.us/my.php?image=p1010027editedlarge7ue.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://img43.imageshack.us/img43/9421/p1010027editedlarge7ue.th.jpg" border="0"></a>
Robert, Ryan, Brandon playing Xbox. Believe it or not, we did this from 2 pm to 2 am. Oh, that's a 50" HDTV plasma screen and surround sound
<a href="http://img43.imageshack.us/my.php?image=p1010028editedlarge2fc.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://img43.imageshack.us/img43/2967/p1010028editedlarge2fc.th.jpg" border="0"></a>
Brandon and Steve
<a href="http://img43.imageshack.us/my.php?image=p1010029editedlarge9sr.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://img43.imageshack.us/img43/7611/p1010029editedlarge9sr.th.jpg" border="0"></a>
The view from Chris' deck. We are in Seattle; Redmond is across the water (Lake Washington)
<a href="http://img43.imageshack.us/my.php?image=p1010030editedlarge8tu.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://img43.imageshack.us/img43/5466/p1010030editedlarge8tu.th.jpg" border="0"></a>
Same view
<a href="http://img43.imageshack.us/my.php?image=p1010031editedlarge6fn.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://img43.imageshack.us/img43/5279/p1010031editedlarge6fn.th.jpg" border="0"></a>
Mt. Rainier, 14,410. It's actually an active volcano, just like Mt. St. Helens which is behind it a little ways. When the plane is landing, you actually look up at it, since it is higher than the plane
<a href="http://img43.imageshack.us/my.php?image=p1010039editedlarge5ph.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://img43.imageshack.us/img43/2125/p1010039editedlarge5ph.th.jpg" border="0"></a>
Jarrod & me
<a href="http://img43.imageshack.us/my.php?image=p1010040editedlarge8gx.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://img43.imageshack.us/img43/6378/p1010040editedlarge8gx.th.jpg" border="0"></a>
Brandon & Jed (front), Robert & Chris (right)
<a href="http://img43.imageshack.us/my.php?image=p1010041editedlarge7xf.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://img43.imageshack.us/img43/9471/p1010041editedlarge7xf.th.jpg" border="0"></a>
Chris playing DDR
<a href="http://img43.imageshack.us/my.php?image=p1010042editedlarge2vh.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://img43.imageshack.us/img43/9633/p1010042editedlarge2vh.th.jpg" border="0"></a>
Robert & Jed studying something interesting
<a href="http://img43.imageshack.us/my.php?image=p1010043editedlarge1tf.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://img43.imageshack.us/img43/3800/p1010043editedlarge1tf.th.jpg" border="0"></a>
Robert playing DDR
<a href="http://img43.imageshack.us/my.php?image=p1010044editedlarge4ah.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://img43.imageshack.us/img43/9598/p1010044editedlarge4ah.th.jpg" border="0"></a>
The Seattle Space Needle
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Goodies
One of the coolest things was that we were given the "last official Longhorn-branded" items (the shirt and backpack) and the "first official Vista-branded" items (the hat and poster).
<a href="http://imageshack.us"><img src="http://img192.imageshack.us/img192/9875/p1010006editedlarge6zq.jpg" border="0" width="472" alt="Image Hosted by ImageShack.us" /></a>
<a href="http://imageshack.us"><img src="http://img187.imageshack.us/img187/1192/p1010004editedlarge8tb.jpg" border="0" width="576" alt="Image Hosted by ImageShack.us" /></a>
some nice stuff you got there larry
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