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31 Comments
- MacGeekGuy, on 10/12/2007, -2/+21I would remind people that being a MS hater and expecting software companies to live up to their word are very different things. When *ANY* OS platform gets upgraded, gets more sophisticated, sets a new standard by which the others are measured... it helps us all.
Every unkept promise from MS on an OS that's years overdue is just another step forward we are not taking as a culture. You don't have to be a Win/Mac lover or hater to see that. - ericsenf, on 10/12/2007, -3/+14One of the best quotes I have recently hears was, "Microsoft has spent 5 years and $5 billion NOT shipping Vista". That is quite a shocking reality.
- TheWriteGuy, on 10/12/2007, -7/+17I look forward to the day when my grandchildren can play Duke Nuk'em Forever on their WinFS Windows computers.
- lunk, on 10/12/2007, -5/+13Microsoft pushed WinFS as the "next big thing" for years. The fact that they won't even be continuing to develop it - THAT'S newsworthy. This is a company without direction...
- chrono13, on 10/12/2007, -0/+8http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winfs
The idea that data can be read by what it is, rather than what is is named is just one of the major advantages. Linux users have had this for years. After a corruption in my XP partition, Windows automatically "recovered" the data - and dumped thousands of files into one folder - all without real names. The data was useless. dll files, txt files, exe files, movie files, music files... all named the same and Windows wasn't helping me figure any of it out. Booted into Linux and Linux had no trouble showing me thumbnails of the images, descriptions and appropriate icons for each file. I batch renamed in groups and had all my data back.
Relationships. If you have used Gmail and like "conversation" view, or if you have used Stumble Upon, or any "if you like this, you might also like this" service or software - this is what it can do. You can not only search for files, but also relationships between files or relevant data. Automatically.
Tagging: Again, back to Gmail. Sorting everything into folders is a terrible way to organize thousands of files. What if the picture is both vacation and girlfriend? Or what if the movie file is both funny and tech related? Tag 'em. Just like in Gmail, each file can have multiple tags. Whether they be specific (persons name) or generic (like Gmail stars or "favorite") - you can then sort and search data across your entire file system and only see what you are looking for. And optionally, possibly related data (see Relationships).
If you have used a desktop search tool (Google Desktop), a photo sorting/tagging tool, Gmail, or other such service - you might find that such a file system would be infinitely useful. This doesn't even begin to take into account how various programs could use this to make data saving, searching, conversion and manipulation much easier and very likely quicker.
It could also put an end to file extensions. Anyone who has used Linux or Mac for a while knows how much easier it is without them.
Read the WIki artical for other possible benifits of such a filesystem. - chrono13, on 10/12/2007, -2/+6If they killed it twice, it is a pretty safe bet that you won't be seeing WinFS until the version after Vista (Fiji).
There are a lot of promises for ME that were dropped and/or turned out to be completely false. XP was no different, and there is no reason to believe Vista will be different. It is marketing.
What remains to be seen is if they can convince users that Vista is better. They don't have to convince anyone to upgrade because 90 percent of computers sold will include it - but convince business to upgrade, or convince users that WGA in Vista is worth the privacy loss just to make someone in Redmond sleep better at night knowing that your copy is legal.
Eggy Eft, XGL/Compiz and other major Linux movements are going to splash down around the same time as Vista. Microsoft has competition, I just hope they realize it enough to build a better product to earn our money rather than simply continue to rely on their waning monopoly. - rderveloy, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4If you read the dev blog that the author links to as the source of what's happening, it's not all doom and gloom:
http://blogs.msdn.com/winfs/archive/2006/06/23/644706.aspx
"Since WinFS is no longer being delivered as a standalone software component, people will wonder what that means with respect to the Windows platform. Just as Vista pushed forward on many aspects of the search and organize themes of the Longhorn WinFS effort, Windows will continue to adopt work as it's ready. We will continue working the innovations, and as things mature they will find their way into the right product experiences – Windows and otherwise."
It could be spin, but I seriously doubt that MS will just dump an idea whose promised features are key to competing with Linux and Mac OS X. Microsoft has been known to work in mysterious ways so this could mean any number of things.
I highly doubt they're just giving up. They may just be reorganizing and restructuring. Think about it, they still haven't come out with WinFS in 10+ years. They probably need to dump the project and take what they've learned and apply it to something new. - joel2600, on 10/12/2007, -5/+7now I can either be one of two users right now.
i can completley disreguard the article and start screaming dupe at the top of my lungs, or i can read the article and compare the information in it to a previous article that I have seen and decide whether or not this is actually informative.
i can't decide which type of user to be, so i posted this. - mistshadow2k4, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1MacGeekGuy, you are exactly right. If some group of Linux devs promised us Linux-users a wonderful new file system next year and didn't deliver, finally canceling the project two years later, they'd be on the receiving end of a lot of scorn in the *nix community. That sort of thing has happened in the past; sure, the MS-haters count are going to toot this, but the truth is the majority reaction of scorn and contempt is the same reaction you'd get in other areas of software development for doing much the same.
- Dotnetsky, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2It's easy to sensationalize this, that and the other thing about Microsoft. It seems to me that Microsoft is simply learning that these technologies are better suited to be rolled into the data access tier where they probably should be. Agreed, its somewhat confusing to hear them calling it ".NET 3.0" if you are a developer. But, hey! That's buzzworditis for ya! And Microsoft ain't the only company that's got it.
- gcnaddict, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3Hey, WinFS was killed once before but made it back in due to high demand (this was after CairoFS and during the Longhorn Code Base Switch). If we all get this on higher news sources, we could get them to put it back in again :P
- dobesov, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Is it just me or is the entire database filesystem hybrid just not a good idea inth first place....
I dont want to trade filesystem preformance for the ability to not remember where i put my files. I like knowing where my files are and i dont like searching for my documents like my computer is a micro-internet that needs a search engine to work. - ahmerhussain, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Site down....
- pkulak, on 10/12/2007, -3/+3http://duggmirror.com/software/The_Sad_Tale_of_WinFS_and_the_Vista_User_Experience
- joel2600, on 10/12/2007, -7/+7winFS is still going to be around, only in other forms ... read up and this will make more sense
it's just not winFS anymore. jesus died and now he's still around in a different format. same concept. - digiprod, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0OK, Let me be accused of being a Windows hater. If you want this feature, buy a Mac! Or use Google Desktop as the best it gets on Windows! This technology from Microsoft has been touted since 1995, this is no mis-print. It still amazes me the the largest and richest software company in the world continues to NOT deliver to its users (that would be me too, as I use Windows also) and Windows users get mad and never switch!
- repruhsent, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1It's funny how there's a story on the front page saying how Vista is going to suck, and there's another story right below it about how the new Vista beta is the cat's meow. Interesting.
- pumacub, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1Except that they are continuing development on it, just not as the stand-alone WinFS. It has been integrated into the Orcas version of ADO.NET.
You know, something similar happened liked this in 1999 during the creation of ASP Plus, they put an end to it because they decided to integrate it into .NET, thus ASP.NET was born. - anti-net, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1It seems to be down, all i get is a four o four
- Quix, on 10/12/2007, -11/+9Let the Apple and Linux haters' wailing and gnashing of teeth begin...
Hype and FUD seem to be the only weapons left in Microsoft's quiver. - Angostura, on 10/12/2007, -3/+1I was tempted to say "I read this on Slashdot yesterday" but refrained.
... nearly - chrono13, on 10/12/2007, -4/+2"They did kill Jesus twice."
I know you may not like Microsoft, but I think resorting to their tactics of FUD is the right ways to do things.
Besides, I don't even think Microsoft was around then. Well... maybe Balmer. He's kinda scary. - zeerocks, on 10/12/2007, -7/+5I say good riddance. This would have over-bloated an already bloated operating system. Who needs or even wants a SQL front end to their filesystem on a personal PC? It would just add another layer of complexity and security issues.
I can maybe see WinFS on a server, but it's a solution waiting for a problem on a desktop. - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -3/+1isnt this news a bit old?
- mdollarsign, on 10/12/2007, -4/+2FUD
- Haroldx, on 10/12/2007, -4/+1Epud.
- anoriega, on 10/12/2007, -11/+7What an original comment.
- xAXISx, on 10/12/2007, -9/+1"If they killed it twice, it is a pretty safe bet that you won't be seeing WinFS until the version after Vista (Fiji)."
They did kill Jesus twice. - XAsmodeaNX, on 10/12/2007, -20/+8Minus digg for your zealotry. It has no place on any OS.
- Haroldx, on 10/12/2007, -21/+6oh
my
god
another dupe.
... - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -41/+14Microsoft haters are bores.
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