Microsoft Lifts Curtain on Indigo Software

daria42 writes "Microsoft has released an early version of Indigo on the Microsoft Developer Network. Indigo is a new communications system intended to let Windows programs more easily connect to other software. Indigo was one of the three original "pillars" of Longhorn, however under the new plan it will be re-tooled to work with Windows XP and Windows Server 2003, in addition to Longhorn."

Comments

Re:Yet another lock-in scheme...

[ADRA]

Not proprietary, but well patented.
EG:
"RSA WS-Security: SOAP Message Security Patent License Agreement Instructions

RSA Security has identified four patents ("the RSA Patents") we believe could be relevant to implementing certain operational modes of the OASIS WS-Security: SOAP Message Security specifications. To obtain a reciprocal royalty free license to the RSA Patents to make, use and sell products conforming to the OASIS WS-Security: SOAP Message Security specifications, a customer or partner must sign the attached Patent License Agreement."

I imagine there are more of these out there..

Re:Cool - A malware framework.

[The Bungi]

The article mentioned "WS-Security" - but I have no idea what that is

That's probably your problem. It's a standard used with SOAP message exchanges. It provides authentication, integrity and confidentiality (nee encryption and a few other things).

As long as you trust the .NET framework (as far as its ability to protect you from, say, buffer overflows) then the WSS implementation for Indigo should be safe enough to use. It would be no different from anything written with JNI, for example.

Re:Cool - A malware framework.

[Owndapan]

There's a lot of FUD flying around here at the moment... Check here for info on WS-Security.

All this talk about blocking ports and security problems seems fairly unfounded -- Indigo is simply a way of using Web Services for app-to-app communication, while taking advantage of the latest WS security mechanisms.

I can't see it being less secure than Java Web Service calls, or HTTP communication in general. Just my 2c.

Re:XP - Longhorn

[SnprBoB86]

Everyone is forgetting about Aero

Alvon is to Quartz as Aero is to Aqua

Aero is not being backported to WinXP. Avalon, Indigo, and WinFS are going to be supported of WinXP; this makes Aero THE reason to upgrade to Longhorn.

Re:What a drag ...

[ediron2]

Don't forget this baby: SGI Indigo. Astounding graphics, raw power, and a gorgeous blue case.

Windows Insecurity By Design: The Beat Goes On

[Prototerm]

One of the main causes of security problems in Windows is the ease in which Windows programs can interact with the operating system and each other on a low-level without the interference of proper security restrictions. Nothing about this "new" communications system leads me to believe it will be any different.

Windows will never be secure until and unless Microsoft changes its design philosophy to something a little more paranoid, and a lot less "let's all be friends".

Re:XP - Longhorn

[McCart42]

"2.) XP's image viewer is nice for viewing sequences of images."

I actually prefer IrfanView for this purpose on my W2K install. It has many more options than the built-in XP image viewer, such as lossless JPG rotation.

Re:Certainly not -- they're scrapping the Win32 AP

[nightski]

Actually, you really should know what you are talking about before you make bold statements. Avalon - NOT the shiny new interface, is the new display subsystem. It handles the layout of windows forms and such. It also has NO knowledge of XML. XAML - A declarative programming language based off of XML. It allows you to instantiate objects using XML. Such as - would instantiate a Hello object and set its Color to blue. Aero - The new shiny interface system. This is actually what makes things pretty and is built off of DirectX. This also has no knowledge of XML or XAML. But this is slashdot, so I should expect geeks to talk out of there arse before knowing what they are talking about! :-)

Re:XP - Longhorn

[laard]

I *hate* how XP's Start menu dynamically hides not-recently-used items

I've seen a lot of people complain about this as well as other changes like not having My Computer on the desktop by default, etc. On my XP machine it takes 5 clicks to make the start menu and the desktop act like windows 2000...

1. Right click on taskbar
2. Click Properties
3. Click the Start Menu tab
4. Select "Classic Start Menu"
5. Click "OK"

The look of the start button and windows etc can also be easily changed to resemble windows 2000. A lot of people didn't like the change. I work in an IT department, and we have users that can't deal with such a change. But there are worthwhile features in XP, and I've found it to run very stable on various hardware configurations (I'm not talking security, just system stability as far as drivers and whatnot.)

I can see for some these graphical differences may not be enough to warrant an upgrade, but when they can be so easily changed/disabled, I don't see them as a reason to stick with 2000 either.

Re:XP - Longhorn

[Anonymous Coward]

If you look carefully, on topics that are even faintly related to MS, you'll find that about 90% of slashdot geeks speak out of their arses! Because they're thinking with their arses!

Who is the target audience?

[ChicagoDave]

I've read through much of the witty banter on /. regarding Indigo, Longhorn, Avalon, and WinFS.

I can only assume that the people that understand how XML, Web Services, Service Oriented Architecture, Enterprise Application Integration effect large corporations have remained silent.

The people that have replied have stated clearly that they don't know what Web Services are, have never worked with XML, and don't understand how EAI has changed the way businesses do things.

Indigo is an extraordinary technology that will very likely be copied by IBM for Java (IBM and Microsoft both partnered on all of the WS-* standards) and will usher in a whole new era of interoperability for the business world.

If you're even the slightest bit curious about what this is all about I suggest the following reading material:

http://www.ws-standards.com/

http://community.java.net/java-ws-xml/

http://msdn.microsoft.com/Longhorn/understanding/p illars/Indigo/default.aspx

WinFX Indigo Docs

http://pluralsight.com/blogs/tewald/default.aspx I'm sure there is a lot more.

Re:Certainly not -- they're scrapping the Win32 AP

[km790816]

Everything in Longhorn will be based on the .NET framework and sandboxed, with the Win32 API scrapped. Longhorn's ability to run the Win32 API will be through a compatibility layer, similar to the DOS compatibility layer in XP. However, WinXP's ability to run Indigo and Avalon, the two pillars of Longhorn, will be done through a forward compatibility layer.

No clue where you're getting your information, dude, but that's all false.

Even when parts of the Longhorn shell was being built on managed code (which is no longer the case), there was no "compatibility layer" for Win32. Longhorn will still have all of the Win32 goodness.

The relationship bewteen Longhorn and managed code will be the same as the relationship between XP and managed code.

Trust me...