Sean Alexander has been a great source of information on Media Center for a long time. Now he’s on the Longhorn team, and today he has his first post as a Longhorn insider:
- There will be a LH build given out at WinHEC. This will not be Beta 1. This is a driver and hardware developer release to get the industry building hardware solutions for Longhorn. Beta 1 will be this summer.
- I used to get really bummed by the “grouping” feature in Windows XP – r-mouse in My Documents and choose “Arrange Icons By|Show in Groups”. Some thought it was fantastic but for me it wasn’t very compelling when I have family members who still can’t find the files they’ve just downloaded. The ability to visualize and organize your information in Longhorn kicks ass. It’s FAST already and going to get even better. It goes beyond physical location of files. WinFS wasn’t required to deliver this and that’s where I think many stumbled in their perceptions.
- Don’t expect to see a lot of updates to or new consumer-focused features right now. Right now it’s about fundamentals- getting hardware to work great, tapping into features that are in most PCs lying dormant for 90%+ of your time, addressing how people view and organize their information. They’ll be plenty of cool new wizardry to come.
I’ve seen the “grouping” feature he mentions in item #2, and yes, it really is cool. In fact, I’d go so far as to predict that Longhorn will basically render all existing desktop search tools obsolete. Beta 1 this summer? Perfect timing!
Ed Bott 