Tools for Longhorn and WinFX Face Schedule Crunch

The “Orcas” release of Visual Studio (VS), designed to support WinFX (a key component of “Longhorn”-the next major upgrade to Windows), may not ship until six months after Longhorn, according to the vice president of Microsoft’s tools division, Soma Somasegar. Although this is a setback for developers who want to jump on the WinFX bandwagon as early as possible, they will still be able to target WinFX using VS 2005, which is due in mid-2005, albeit without some of the tools that would make development easier for corporate developers.

Caught Between Yukon and Longhorn

WinFX is a new set of APIs based on the .NET Framework that are designed to replace many of the aging Win32 APIs that have been in use since the introduction of Windows NT in 1992. Recent changes to Microsoft’s Longhorn plans include removing some features and making other elements of WinFX available on Windows XP. The changes suggest that the company is increasingly serious about shipping the OS update at the end of 2006.