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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."
That was an old SGI workstation IIRC
(You may google for it, if you please)
I see 57005 people
Is it me or nothing MS is pitching in Longhorn sounds that exciting? A new version of COM+, wow how exciting!
For ONCE, I want a newer version of Windows to be faster and smaller than the previous version and more stable as well.
"By making Avalon and Indigo work on older machines, Microsoft hopes more developers will want to write software that takes advantage of the new technologies" I guess .Net isn't selling fast enough.
The smartest man in the whole, wide world really don't know that much. - Mose Allison
This, Avalon, and WinFS are all jokeworthy now, but at least one of these if not all of them will see decent implementation in GNU/Linux three to five years after they're being used in Longhorn, at which point Microsoft will have the replacement ready for release.
It might even have a better interface than Apple, spawning a whole new series of Longhorn themes for X-Windows.
Try not. Do or do not, there is no try.
-- Dr. Spock, stardate 2822-3.
Indigo is a new communications system intended to let Worms and Script Kiddies more easily connect to other software.
Indego, in they go!
No, it uses Web Services, and standardised security (WS-Security).
For a great many users, that "$499 Upgrade" will ship installed on their new $500 Dell.
Honestly, the same case could be made for 98 to 98 SE, 9x to ME, and 2000 to XP Pro.
95 finally brought a modern gee-whiz interface to Windows, 2000 brought stability* to Windows. Hopefully Longhorn will be a good upgrade, I still don't see the benefits of XP over 2000 as a lowly end-user. That and my 2000 box is still runnning (mind you over a non-clean install) and my XP box is barely alive a year later, XP2 and all.
* As defined in the Microsoft Internet Dictionary: stability. n.. Not TOO unstable.
Small potatoes make the steak look bigger.
Aero will definitely be the most immediate reason for consumers to upgrade, since it will give the windows UI some 'pizzazz'. The underlying kernel is completely revamped, but unfortunately that's something that the desktop user won't notice (except for, one hopes, increased stability, etc...). Visually, the upgrade from 98 to 2000 wasn't very convincing, while the underlying kernel outclassed 98 in every respect.
Admit it... you don't know much about windows, do you? Log into windows XP SP2 (or for bonus points Windows 2003) as a Limited user account (read: Not Administrator), and write me a program that can modify low-level features of the machine, or any system configuration for that matter (outside the config specific for your user). You can't. Windows has robust Access Control system (more granular than many standard linux distros that depend on unix filesystem perms for security [yes i know patched kernels exist with ACLs, which is great]).
It's just a pity that the managers for XP chose to have everyone run as Administrator so as not to confuse grandma. Thankfully, Longhorn will, out of the box, make your desktop account non-admin.
Never plan around one technology, or in this case, one programming methods for distributed communication.
As we all saw the slow crumbling and demise of each Microsoft protocols falling to disuse due to the wrath of Virus-writers, trojan-puller, malware-pharming.
To roll out a new technology and then place all your products' planning around this untested-in-the-wild technology, has been proven to be exceedingly risky.
I wish them the best of luck.
Everything in Longhorn will be based on the .NET framework and sandboxed, with the Win32 API scrapped.
You're a damn fool if you believe that. Or at least, if you believe that and that Longhorn will be released this decade.
#!/
This started out as practically a greenfield project within MS with a brand new team at least five years ago. It's being done by incredibly competent people, and they have done a huge amount of work on interoperability issues- that whole raft of WS standards represents solutions to a whole range of issues that no else is really confronting. And I'm not saying they've solved them in an ideal way but as long as no one else puts anything out there that is less proprietary, they will jump out in front here. Remember how they eventually "got" the Internet?
Those of us who love F/OSS and Linux need to be less dismissive and more frightened.
MS is fragmented and balkanized internally but there are pockets of real capability. Web Services have not achieved anywhere near the level of adoption they could/should have by now (to all you trolls: the few dozen desultory SOAP projects at your company prove my point, not disprove it). And that's because of lack of "security," which boils down to lack of widely supported standards. We gotta be more proactive about this, and not make the same mistakes we are making in regard to Avalon.
The point is that though the 'pillars' will work under XP, the new OS will be DESIGNED for them. They will work MUCH better under Longhorn, with better hardware support/acceleration and so on. Plus, Microsoft is very interested in the concept of 'trusted computing', and putting DRM into the hardware of your next computer.
Of course, the whole 'pillars working better under Longhorn' thing is what MS wants us to think, but we obviously won't know until they FINALLY come out with it... whenever that is.
I am scientifically inaccurate.
If a company uses DRM to place unacceptable restrictions on what I purchase I'll simply not buy it. It's really that simple. And I'm sure a lot of other people will do the same. All the DRM will do is stop people from using it in a way which the companies don't "like". Which is fine by me as the choice to buy or not to buy is always going to be mine to make.