By Michael Cherry [bio]                See more recent article on Longhorn (Dec. 2003)
Posted: May 26, 2003

• Illustration: Windows XP Roadmap at a Glance
• Chart: Windows Server Roadmap at a Glance

The following is the full text of an article published by Directions on Microsoft, an independent research firm focused exclusively on Microsoft strategy & technology. Each month we make one or more key articles available to non-subscribers.

Better graphics and audio are among the enhancements planned for Longhorn, the next major Windows client release planned for 2005. Until then, Windows XP will be the Windows client and customers will only see service packs and "fit-and-finish" releases to two special Windows editions (Tablet and Media Center). Similarly, customers will not see any major new Windows server releases until past 2005, but many add-ons to the server will ship in the meantime. While the company is focusing most Windows development resources on Longhorn Windows, it has not yet revealed what features that release will offer that benefit companies, as opposed to consumers.

Next Steps for Windows XP

Microsoft does not plan any interim client release between Windows XP and Longhorn, according to Will Poole, senior vice president of the Windows Client business. This means that XP will be the current Windows client until late 2005. While designing, developing, and testing Longhorn, Microsoft will keep any development on XP to a minimum. Before the end of 2003, Microsoft will release a second XP Service Pack (SP2), and Second Editions for XP Tablet and Media Center. (For an illustration showing the path to Longhorn, see "Windows XP Roadmap at a Glance".)

XP SP2. It is not clear whether SP2 will include any new features or changes to XP other than the normal security and bug fixes. It is likely to be a cumulative service pack that will include SP1 as well.

XP Tablet Second Edition. Microsoft is describing this update to XP Tablet as fit-and-finish improvements, which means the changes are only a series of small adjustments to the services or user interface. In particular, this update includes a multiuser language and recognizer pack, and a Spanish language handwriting recognition engine.

Media Center Second Edition. Microsoft is also describing this update to XP Media Center, Microsoft’s home entertainment edition of XP, as a fit-and-finish improvement: in this case the main change is the addition of European television guide information.

Both XP Tablet and Media Center could see additional versions before Longhorn to take advantage of new technologies, such as the Xeel Navigation Interface.

Longhorn Is Major Client Focus

With the general availability of Windows Server 2003 in Apr. 2003, the main focus of Windows development has shifted from the server to the next client, Longhorn. At the 2003 Windows Hardware Engineering Conference (WinHEC), Microsoft supplied hardware developers, who traditionally have the longest development lead times, with technical details of Longhorn features that will require hardware changes or that will impact how hardware works with the OS. It also provided some information on Longhorn's delivery schedule.

Hardware Features Target Consumers

The new information about Longhorn was concentrated on features that have consumer-oriented hardware dependencies, such as changes to graphics and audio. Hardware improvements in Longhorn focus on four main areas: graphics, audio, installation, and a new Longhorn Driver Kit.

Graphics. To support high resolution displays and output, Microsoft will change the way Windows renders graphics, moving from the current graphic device interfaces (GDI and GDI+) to a Desktop Composition Engine (DCE) based on DirectX9. Microsoft told graphics hardware developers that Longhorn will work best with 3D graphics hardware and hardware acceleration to handle the amount of simultaneous rendering that Longhorn will require.

Audio. Microsoft wants to improve audio scenarios for Longhorn in the same way that it improved digital photography in XP. Longhorn will manage audio and video settings, such as calibration levels or default inputs, via an audio policy engine and will support self-discovery of audio or video devices. For example, if a user plugs a microphone into any audio jack, Longhorn will determine it is an input device and load the appropriate drivers. As with graphics, Microsoft stresses audio driver quality as a key improvement goal.

Installation and setup. Microsoft will leverage the componentization work originally done for Windows XP Embedded to allow OEMs and others to quickly build different Longhorn editions on top of a set of common components. In other words, different Longhorn editions (such as Tablet or Media Center) could be built from a common OS component base, with specialized components being added as necessary. This will allow for much faster installation of Longhorn and more rapid development of PCs for special uses.

Longhorn Driver Kit. Stressing that better quality drivers are the key to a better quality OS, Microsoft will create a Longhorn Driver Kit (LDK), which it will release before the PDC to help hardware manufacturers develop high-quality drivers. The LDK will combine information formerly available in the Device Driver Kit (DDK) as well as improved information about testing drivers that was in the separate Hardware Compatibility Test (HCT) kit.

At WinHEC Microsoft also provided more technical details about the Next Generation Secure Computing Base (NGSCB), a secure OS that will operate side-by-side with a regular OS and will provide features such as the ability for one computer to prove its identity to another computer. In his WinHEC keynote address, Chief Software Architect Bill Gates indicated that hardware vendors must be involved in developing NGSCB-compatible components, including processors, video cards, and even keyboards. The requirement for new hardware in addition to the work that Microsoft itself needs to do for NGSCB, including developing a new component called the Trusted Platform Module, means that Microsoft will have to determine how dependent it will allow Longhorn to be on NGSCB—will it be willing to delay Longhorn if NGSCB is not ready?

The Long Hike to Longhorn

With Microsoft confirming that Longhorn will not be generally available until 2005, the next question is "When in 2005?"

If Longhorn development is in keeping with past Windows release cycles, it should ship about 40 months after the previous OS version. This estimate is most reliable when one knows when real work began on Longhorn: a reasonable starting date would appear to be when Windows Server 2003 Release Candidate 1 (RC1) was released in July 2002. At this milestone, some program managers and software engineers were likely available to begin designing the specification for Longhorn. Adding 40 months to this date would give Longhorn a release-to-manufacturing date of Nov. 2005.

Next Steps for Windows Server

Given that Microsoft has just shipped Windows Server 2003, there will not be any significant server OS releases for some time. Instead, Microsoft has decided to deliver a series of "out-of-band" releases—add-ons and products that customers can use to enhance existing Windows Server 2003 installations. This strategy allows Microsoft to deliver improvements to Windows Server as soon as development and testing of those improvements is complete, rather than holding them for the next complete server release. (For more information on these out-of-band releases, see "Windows Server Roadmap at a Glance".)

The next major release of the server, code-named Blackcomb, will not occur until after the Longhorn client release—probably 2006 or 2007. Because it is so far off, even less is known about Blackcomb than Longhorn. Microsoft says Blackcomb will address "functional areas," including making the system more trustworthy and federating user authentication services.

At this time it does not appear that there will be a Longhorn server release per se, but Microsoft may have to release a Longhorn-focused service pack or otherwise refresh Windows Server 2003. For example, if Microsoft makes changes to the client file system it might require changes to a storage-related feature on the server, such as Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS).

Resources

For more information on the general WinHEC 2003 messages, see "Message to OEMs: Focus on Consumers" on page 20 of the June 2003 Update.

For more information on estimating the Windows development cycle, see the illustration "The Windows Development Timeline" and the related article "A Fork in the Road to Longhorn" on page 7 of the Nov. 2002 Update.

For Microsoft’s WinHEC 2003 Web site, see www.microsoft.com/winhec/default.mspx.

Roadmaps for Windows and other key Microsoft enterprise products can be found in the Directions on Microsoft "Enterprise Product Roadmap".