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by James Robertson.
Original Post: More than late?
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Everyone else has commented on the Longhorn decisions - but here's something I'm wondering about. MS has announced that the file system (WinFS) will be missing from Longhorn, and will "ship later". Hmm. I don't think you ship a file system as a set of dynamic updates to the OS - I mean seriously - outside of a major upgrade, how many people are going to take the time to install it? I'd say that it's entirely possible that WinFS will never ship. Why? Look at the timelines:
XP SP 2 - shipping now
Longhorn - shipping 2006
Longhorn is still two years out (at least - I wouldn't discount the possibility of further delays). MS isn't going to want to ship a disruptive upgrade too soon after Longhorn either - which puts WinFS out until something like 2008-2009 (at the earliest). Now, what's the liklihood that it'll survive that long without some MS development group deciding that they have something better between now and then? I'd say pretty slim.