Longhorn proves a tough climb for Microsoft
The Longhorn Saloon, an apres ski favourite nestled between the Whistler and Blackcomb mountains in the Canadian Rockies, has a special place in software history.
With ironic humour, Microsoft's developers used the bar as the codename for the next landmark version of their Windows computer operating system.
Whistler had lent its name to the last version of the software, now known as Windows XP; Blackcomb is already being used internally to describe a future rendition. That left Longhorn to fill in between the twin peaks of technological achievement.
In reality, though, the Longhorn generation of Windows was set be the highest peak of the three. It has long loomed large on Microsoft's horizon, the first big new version of Windows for six years - an aeon in technology terms.
The software landscape is now starting to change. At the end of last week, Microsoft committed itself for the first time to bringing out Longhorn in 2006, a relief to the company's users and the technology industry ecosystem that has built up around Windows, given the many delays there have been already to the software.
However, Longhorn has been stripped down to allow Microsoft to meet this deadline and minimise the risk of losing momentum to rivals.
"It looked overly ambitious," says Rick Sherlund, software analyst at Goldman Sachs.
To Microsoft executives, there is no shame in such over-reach. "It's part of Microsoft's nature" to be so ambitious, says Will Poole, senior vice president. "It doesn't seem you did something wrong by setting your sights high in the first place."
The retreat on Longhorn points to a constant tension in the development of landmark products like Windows: whether to bring out occasional, "big bang" versions of the software, or to dribble out new features more frequently.
Even before last week's news, the more pragmatic approach had already started to take over.
Take the ability to search for information on a PC - one of the new elements long planned for Longhorn. Needing to move fast to catch up with internet search engine Google, Microsoft has turned to this so-called "local" search as an important short-term weapon in the search wars. A version will now be launched later this year as a feature in Microsoft's own search engine.
A similar pragmatism has reigned when it comes to computer security, another area where Longhorn is meant to bring big advances. Fighting a plague of computer viruses and worms that have exposed flaws in its software, Microsoft has just released an updated version of Windows XP that contains many new security features.
The extent of the changes is almost enough to qualify the update as a whole new version of Windows in its own right, industry analysts say.Indeed, the urgency behind this project forced Microsoft to shift much of its development effort away from Longhorn over the past year, contributing to delays with the next version of the software and the eventual decision to scale it back.
What, then, will be left when Longhorn finally arrives?
The operating system will come without a key ingredient that Microsoft executives had said would be one of its main technological breakthroughs: a new file storage system that was meant to make it far easier to find information on the PC, and to let software developers create complex new applications that would run on Windows machines.
But two main elements will still make the next Windows a break-through, Microsoft says. One will make possible a whole new level of machine-to-machine communications, invisible to the user, that is intended to let the PC draw more deeply on information and programming resources over the internet. Also, a more powerful graphics engine will, among other things, give Windows a 3D look - the most visible feature of the new software for most users.
"If you are an end-user, you are going to be amazed at what you see," promises Mr Poole. Longhorn, he adds, will have something for each of the three groups of people that Windows serves: the corporate IT departments that oversee large groups of PCs, the software developers who use Windows as a platform for their own software, and the end users. It will bring "amazingly fast desktop search. It will be far easier for IT departments to deploy and manage," says Mr Poole.
He had better be right. "Stagnation in innovation" is the biggest threat to Microsoft, says Mr Sherlund. "They need something new." That makes it a good thing, on balance, to release a simplified Longhorn in 2006 than a more complete one later, he adds.
Without a steady flow of new breakthroughs, Microsoft would start to look vulnerable to attack from the thing it has identified as its most serious competitor in the coming years: the open-source Linux operating system.
While it may not soar to the heights once dreamt of, it is time for Longhorn to take its place alongside the other software peaks.
视窗下一代的长征
长角牛酒吧(Longhorn Saloon)坐落在加拿大洛基山脉惠斯勒山(Whistler Mountain)和黑梳山(Blackcomb Mountain)之间，它是高山滑雪者最爱之地，在软件历史上有着特殊的地位。
微软(Microsoft)的开发人员以冷嘲式的幽默，把这个酒吧的名称作为“视窗”下一个里程碑式版本的代号。
Windows上个版本已经借用了Whistler这个名字，现在被称为Windows XP；Blackcomb在微软内部已被描述为一个未来版本的名称。于是Longhorn就填补了这两座技术成就姐妹峰之间的地带。
但实际上，Windows的Longhorn这代操作系统肯定会成为三者中的最高峰。很久以来，它在微软的远景规划中就非常显著。它是微软6年来推出的第一个大型Windows新版。在技术领域，6年是一段相当漫长的时期。
软件的面貌现已开始改变。微软于上周末首次承诺，将在2006年推出Longhorn。考虑到该软件上的诸多拖延，对于该公司的用户，以及围绕Windows建立起来的技术业生态系统而言，这是个安慰。
然而，为了如期推出该软件，并将被对手抢先的风险降到最小，微软已对Longhorn进行了简缩。
“它原来看上去过于野心勃勃了，”高盛(Goldman Sachs)的软件分析师瑞克?舍兰德(Rick Sherlund)表示。
对微软的高层而言，有这种雄心大志没什么丢脸的。雄心勃勃“是微软本性的一部分，”微软高级副总裁威尔?普尔(Will Poole)说，“你一开始就把目标定得很高，这似乎没什么错。”
Longhorn退了一步，表明在Windows这类里程碑式产品的开发上，始终存在一种争执：是时而推出该软件的“惊世”版本，还是更频繁地提供一些新特性呢？
甚至在上周发布消息之前，微软已开始采取更切实的行动。
以在个人电脑上查找信息的能力为例，这是早就计划在Longhorn中包含的新要素之一。微软需要加快步伐，以赶上互联网搜索引擎Google，因此已把这种所谓“本地”搜索功能变为一种重要武器，可在搜索引擎战中短期使用。微软将于今年晚些时候发布一种新版搜索功能，作为自己搜索引擎的一个特性。
在计算机安全问题上，类似的实用主义也占了上风。计算机安全是Longhorn打算进行重大改进的另一个方面。现在电脑病毒和蠕虫泛滥成灾，暴露了微软软件的漏洞。为了与之抗争，微软刚刚发布了Windows XP的一个更新版本，里面包含许多新的安全特性。
行业分析师表示，就这次变动的程度而言，几乎堪称Windowns自身的一个全新版本。实际上，由于抗病毒项目的紧迫性，微软去年被迫将很大一部分开发努力从Longhorn上转移，导致Windows新版本的推出被延迟，还最终决定将其简化。
那么，当Longhorn最终到来时，还剩下些什么？
操作系统中一个关键成分没有了，而微软经营管理人员曾表示，该成分将是主要技术突破之一：一个新型文档存储系统，该系统旨在大大方便用户在个人电脑上找到信息，并让软件开发商创造出复杂的新应用程序，可在装有Windows的电脑上运行。
但微软表示，有两大要素仍将使下一代Windows成为一种突破。一个要素是，让一种全新水平的机机交流成为可能，用户看不到这种交流，其目的是让个人电脑在互联网上更深入地汲取信息和程序资源。另外还有许多要素，其中主要一个是更为强大的图形引擎，它赋予Windows三维外观，对大多数用户来说，这是新软件最显著的特征。
普尔先生保证：“如果你是终端用户，你将会对你所看到的东西大为惊叹。”他补充说，Longhorn将为Windows所服务的三组人群分别提供某些用处。这三组人群是：监测大批个人电脑的公司信息技术(IT)部门、将Windows作为软件运行平台的软件开发商，以及最终用户。它将带来“令人惊叹的快速桌面搜索，令IT部门更轻松地进行部署和管理，”普尔先生表示。
他最好是对的。“创新停滞”是微软面临的最大威胁，舍兰德先生说，“他们需要一些新东西。”他补充说，总而言之，2006年发布简化版的Longhorn，以后再推出更完整的版本，这是一件好事。
如果没有一系列稳定的新突破，在面对来自开放源代码Linux操作系统的攻击时，微软就会显得难以经受。微软把这种操作系统视为未来几年中最大的劲敌。
虽然Longhorn可能达不到一度梦想的高度，但现在是它在其他软件高峰旁取得自己地位的时候了。
