get real. start charging, close the source and get back to reality.
Wow, you actually sound angry that MS is so bloated and flakey. Open source does charge for its support services and obviously does quite well at it. Leave greed out of it. You cannot purchase what these people have. It is purely for the love and respect involved in it’s communities and forums. These open source people smoke MS hands down. Vista is a mere reflection of something that it can never be. Open source has 20 times more to offer anyone who switches and can offer it for free. If you want a support contract, that is another story but you are not forced or strong armed by the MS Tyrant.
Enjoy your virus.

get real. start charging, close the source and get back to reality.

its YOUR hard earned work.

And it makes sense too. There is little chance Apple has the funding to pursue such an elaborate project. This is no longer a game of who can advance fastest: if MS pulls this off, Apple might be in alot of trouble, since with MS’s current installed market, WinFS could become a new standard which Apple will have some trouble beating.

Hopefully this is not the case.

Actually, the Spotlight vs WinFS is a perfect example of the difference between Apple and Microsoft. For starters, Apple hired Dominic Giampaolo to head Apple’s efforts on Spotlight. If that name isn’t familiar to you, he was the brains behind Be OS’s BeFS which you might recall was the first file system to provide metadata searches, etc. So, yes, Apple DOES have THE best developers in the industry. There are many examples, such as Avie Tevanian (sp?) creator of Mach, Dave Hyatt, well known open source brower developer, Bill Kinkaid (iTunes), well known for his encoder work, etc. This list is long and distinguished.

Also, you’re incorrect regarding the scope of file types that are indexed. All files are indexed. Just like WinFS, Apple provides a basic set of “importers” that understand how to handle specific types of files in full detail. This is extensible by the developer community, same as WinFS. The only scope difference seems to be Network based searches. From what I understand, WinFS will not be able to deliver that in 2006 as it will be dependent upon an updated Windows Server product. Even then, it’s dependent upon each client having WinFS installed. i.e. this won’t be practical for a LONG time. By then, you can believe Spotlight will likely have the same features.

As for the timing of the announcments of search capabilities, this means nothing. It’s when you can deliver. Microsoft is well known for promising vaporware when they know the competition is getting ahead of them. This was a pre-emptive strike by MS. Apple on the other hand is well known for holding it’s cards until the last minute. In this case, developer support is required, to fully utilize this feature. Likewise, Apple demonstrated it at the next developer release after Panther shipped.

As for putting your money on the company with the 7 billion dollar research budget…. Why? Considering they have nothing innovative to show for it, it’s seems like a lost bet for you. How about Avalon? Come on, Apple’s had Quartz, etc., which is what Avalon is trying to imitate, for years now. Historically speaking, MS as invested tons of money on “me too” technology and has NEVER led the pack with any technology of significance.

Actually, that would make it 12+ years in coming. Bill promised an ObjectFileSystem in Cairo, and in 1994 they had to withdraw, as it were becoming too complex.

Linux now supports more architectures than any other system. Will there be differences between them? Sure, some differences particularly with regard to hardware and firmware support are unavoidable, but the application programmer or end user need not worry too much.

“Microsoft will deliver a Windows storage subsystem, code-named “WinFS,” after the “Longhorn” release.”

So, there won’t be WinFS in Longhorn. About the difference between WinFS and Spotlight, you might be right. I knew I was on a leap by equating them.

as for WinFS it is not gone from Longhorn as you are stating here some of the networked features of WinFS are not going to be implemented at the time of release. It will have local system WinFS features. As for the Tiger version of OSX if you read the features that are being implemented by Apple they are actually significantly reduced in scope compared to what Microsoft is attempting (only certain file types are to be indexed etc.)

Originally WinFS was to have reach accross the network and potentially (through subscription web services) accross the internet.

So my feeling is that you are looking at two different problem sets and calling them the same thing. There already exist file indexers for Windows such as Lookout which MS just purchased. Furthermore Microsoft announced WinFS in the Fall of 2003 (PDC) and then Apple announces 6 months later that in a year they will incorporate WinFS like features on the local machine only. So who is innovative? I put my money on the 7 billion dollar research budget.

I am not saying that Apple isn’t innovative by any means but the example is not a good one.

Additionally Microsoft has been working on the underpinnings of Longhorn before the release of WinXP was released in 2001. The ambisions of the features are much greater which, in my oppinion is why it takes them longer to get things runing.

Mark

“For Windows XP 64-bit issue, you have to go back to Scoble’s questions: how many 64-bit processor/systems MS has to support and test? How many 64-bit architectures? To name a few, there are AMD-64 family (x86 extensions), Itanium (EPIC), Nocona (EM64T).”

No excuse. The Linux kernel supports IA-64, x86-64 (amd64 and em64t), mips64, ppc64, sh64, sparc64, and Alpha; and in most of these cases, has for years.

Patrick: VS 2005 has lots of other improvements than just refactoring. In addition, VS 2005 refactoring is only for C# at the moment for obvious reasons. I can’t see why the improvements in VS 2005 should come as a result of pressure from Java IDEs. On the contrary, Sun Java Studio was released to ease the pressure put by VS.net and to lure Java developers back to Java.

For Windows XP 64-bit issue, you have to go back to Scoble’s questions: how many 64-bit processor/systems MS has to support and test? How many 64-bit architectures? To name a few, there are AMD-64 family (x86 extensions), Itanium (EPIC), Nocona (EM64T).