If you are a Microsoft user, there's a big change coming in Longhorn -- the code name for the next MS operating system: the "My" prefix is disappearing.

Microsoft users have become used to the "My Music," "My Pictures," and other "My" folders, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, reported. Those Windows folders will still be yours -- but they won't keep hitting you over the head with that terminology.

Ending a longstanding tradition, Microsoft says, starting in the next Windows version due out next year, folders will be known simply as "Documents," "Music," and so on.

The "My" prefix was apparently an attempt to create a personal connection between people and their computers at a time when the idea of using a computer might have been forbidding.

The technique seems especially outdated now that computers and technology have become such a normal part of everyday life, Naomi Baron, an American University linguistics professor told the Post-Intelligencer.

Baron is writing a book called "Beyond E-mail: Language in the New Millennium."

News source: Commerce Times

Windows Microsoft says Longhorn will be ready by Christmas 2006

Microsoft Corp. assured computer-makers Monday that the next version of Windows is on track for release by the 2006 holiday season, after several years of delays. And Bill Gates himself conceded that he's impatient to see the company finish the new operating system, code-named Longhorn.

"Whenever I see those demos, I just think, 'Gosh, let's get Longhorn done, ' " the Microsoft chairman said in a speech at the Windows Hardware Engineering Conference in Seattle. The company used the conference to demonstrate several of the underlying technologies and features planned for Longhorn, which the company initially scheduled for release in 2003.

Microsoft aims "Metro" at Adobe

The next version of Windows will include a new document format, code-named "Metro," to print and share documents, Microsoft said Monday. Metro appears to rival Adobe Systems's PostScript and PDF (portable document format) technologies.

Metro was demonstrated during Microsoft Chairman and Chief Software Architect Bill Gates' keynote at the start of the Windows Hardware Engineering Conference (WinHEC) on Monday in Seattle.

The format, based on XML (extensible markup language), will be licensed royalty free and users will be able to open Metro files without a special client. In the demonstration, a Metro file was opened and printed from Internet Explorer, Microsoft's Web browser.

Printers and printer drivers can include support for Metro and deliver better and faster printing results than with today's printing technology, Microsoft said. On stage, a Xerox Corp. printer with Metro built in was used to print a sample slide.

Three hundred and fifty three days, that's how long its been since the outside world has been given a peek at the state of Windows, Codename Longhorn. On that day, almost a full year ago now, at WinHec 2004 we received the Longhorn build 4074 DVD in our kit; as recently as today I saw someone in our IRC channel seeking a download of that same build. The long drought for a new build of Longhorn is officially over. I proudly present to you, build 5048...

What follows is not an assessment of stability nor critique of its features, but a peek into what we might be able to expect from a more complete operating system. Jim Allchin, vice president of Microsoft Platforms Group, has publicly predicted Longhorn is to be only 1/3 feature complete at the time of Beta 1. I don't think it too fair that we judge this pre-beta build to par with an OS that one would feel comfortable with on a day to day basis. Qualifying statements aside, I will comment though that with the limited time spent with this build, its been very very well behaved. I even left it booted for two days straight without it leaking memory all over my desk.

A few general observations:

5048 is to be considered a baseline platform, it doesn't have many bells and whistles. Like any builder, the architects at Microsoft have been working on the foundation first. To the casual observer, Longhorn feels like XP with a new shell. But that is truly where the similarities end. A quick glance at the root of the system drive tells a different story. Dig deeper, and the chasm widens. As I've only had a limited time with these recient builds, my thought is to leave the technical analysis to later when more concrete facts can be presented.

The above observation is the result of the hard work that's been going on under the hood. My opinion is there is a little bit of, "Lets make sure this build isn't a pig like last years." As I mentioned above, 5048 is well behaved. Aside from the many things that are noticeably not working, you can expect 5048 to hum along nicely until you get frustrated with it's missing and broken pieces. I even took some time to do a little gaming. While the hardware I have it installed on is no slouch, (Athlon 64 at 2.75ghz and 1 gig of ram, 6600GT) once I was immersed in a game, there was no noticeable lag. I'll leave the benchmarking and ruminating over performance to those that expect more of a pre-beta platform than should be expected of this particular spring chicken.

I also noticed a few items conspicuously missing, like the inability to run Add/Remove Windows Components. Seems the easiest way to disable access to features is to not let us install them. Then again I could be reading into something that just isn't complete. (no Run DLL32.EXE shell32.dll,Control_RunDLL appwiz.cpl,,2 doesn't work) Upon further inquiry, I was informed that currently this function is only accessible via a command line tool.

*UPDATE*

DWM enabled! See page 4 for details and spinny, twisty, transparent windows!

Full Story: WinBeta.Org Review of Longhorn 5048

As chatter about the next Windows version increases, the issue of user privileges comes to the forefront.

Software engineers who attend Microsoft's annual Windows Hardware Engineering Conference later this month could get their first taste of a new Windows user permissions model that could change the way thousands of programs are developed and run. But as the company prepares for the final Longhorn development push, questions remain about its plans for a new user privileges model called Least-Privilege User Account, or LUA.

Network administrators enforce strict user privileges on networks and restrict access to servers and other resources, but individual Windows users often log on to their Windows system as a local administrator because of the difficulty of running even common programs with just user permissions. Authors of viruses, worms, bots, and spyware take advantage of those elevated privileges to install malicious programs and change the configuration of Windows to keep their creations from being detected, shut down, or removed, experts say.

Microsoft plans in April to offer developers an updated test version of Longhorn, along with more details on what's in store with the next major update to Windows.

In an e-mail to developers on Wednesday, Microsoft said it would offer a new developer preview release of Longhorn at the company's Windows Hardware Engineering Conference, April 25-27 in Seattle.

The company has also updated its WinHEC site with a preliminary list of tracks - many of which are devoted to Longhorn.

Antitrust regulators to take a closer look...

Microsoft is slated to meet with federal and state antitrust regulators next month to discuss possible areas of concern regarding Longhorn, the next version of Windows.

The meeting, which is an outgrowth of the long-running Department of Justice antitrust case, will take place in mid-February, according to a joint status report filed late on Tuesday with US District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly.

Microsoft has once again revised thier ever changing schedule for Longhorn release dates.

While they seem to be sticking to a May 2006 release date, the timeframe they hope to keep and the dates we see transpire may be diferrent.

Here is the latest from Redmond:

Milestone 9 (platform complete) - 16th March 2005
Beta 1 - 25th May 2005
Beta 2 - 12th October 2005
Release Candidate 0 - 22nd February 2006
Release Candidate 1 - 12th April 2006
Release To Manufacturing - 24th May 2006

As usual, time will tell.

News source: In-house

Microsoft has set a date for a second Longhorn-themed Professional Developers Conference (PDC). The event will be held in September 2005, almost two years after the company first detailed the Windows XP successor at the 2003 PDC.

Longhorn has undergone a lot of changes since the unveiling. Microsoft has sacrificed some key advances it had planned for the operating system to be able to make a 2006 ship date. Also, Microsoft now plans to offer updates for Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 to support technologies that previously were reserved for Longhorn.

At the second Longhorn PDC, to be held September 13 through September 16 in Los Angeles, Microsoft should be able to give developers more concrete information on the operating system. A first Longhorn beta is scheduled to be available in the first half of 2005, several months before the event.

Microprocessor giant Intel Corporation briefed reporters last week about its plans to evolve its x86 products in directions that more closely match where the software industry is heading.

In addition to a suite of chips that will be aimed at the enterprise market, Intel will also ship so-called designer processors that will feature new technology extensions to take advantage of the unique features in Longhorn, the next major version of Windows.

First up is a set of product extensions, codenamed the "T family," which will pair Intel's HyperThreading (HT) Technology with Intel's x64-compatible 64-bit extensions, which the company cryptically calls EM64T. These extensions will be applied to a generation of desktop chips Intel will begin selling in 2005; today, the EM64T technology is available only in certain high-end Xeon and Pentium 4 designs.

In 2006, Intel's chips will be augmented by two further extensions, codenamed LaGrande Technology (LT) and Vanderpool Technology/Silverdale Technology (VT/ST). LT focuses on security, while VT/ST provides virtualization features. Both are set for a release that will coincide with the release of Longhorn in mid-2006, Intel says.