A First Look at Longhorn
Pages: 1, 2, 3
New Themes
There are two new themes in Longhorn -- Slate and Jade. Figure 12 shows the Jade theme -- a combination of silver and blue. The new themes have received a lot of comments and criticisms from testers on the Web. But I think it is still too early to judge the looks since the final product may be drastically different.
And as a Mac user I find the theme eerily similar to Mac OS X. However, expect more themes to appear in subsequent builds.
Figure 12. The new Jade theme.
3D Desktop
One of the most impressive features in Longhorn is no doubt the Avalon Desktop Windows Manager (DWM). Avalon is the new 3D GUI in Longhorn. If you are lucky enough (that is, your hardware is powerful enough) you should be able to see it for yourself in this current build.
To invoke DWM, open up a command window and type the following command (note the directory):
C:\WINDOWS\I386>sbctl startWait a few seconds and you should notice that your windows are now three-dimensional (see Figure 13, and note the shadows). Again, this looks much like Mac OS X's Aqua UI.
Figure 13. Windows in 3D Avalon.
But that similarity ends when you press Alt-Tab! All open windows will be stacked up (see Figure 14). Each tab will cycle through the windows, with the active one displayed at the front of the window stack. I did find some inconsistencies in the implementation, but hey…this is pre-beta software!
Figure 14. The windows all stack up when you press Alt-Tab.
Even though I can invoke DWM on my machine, it is painfully slow. A few minutes into it I looked for a way to switch back to the 2D mode. Fortunately, it is simple:
C:\WINDOWS\I386>sbctl stopSummary
Overall, this build of Longhorn spots some improvements in UI. Performance-wise, it is still slow for two reasons:
This is pre-beta software so it contains lots of debugging code. Also, the OS has not been optimized yet.
Microsoft expects higher hardware requirements when Longhorn eventually rolls out. Also Microsoft anticipates that 64-bit computing will be prevalent when Longhorn ships.
This piece just skims the surface of what's in Longhorn. In future articles I will dive deeper into each Longhorn feature.
Wei-Meng Lee (Microsoft MVP) http://weimenglee.blogspot.com is a technologist and founder of Developer Learning Solutions http://www.developerlearningsolutions.com, a technology company specializing in hands-on training on the latest Microsoft technologies.
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Showing messages 1 through 8 of 8.
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IE Themes Look Like Firefox
2005-04-05 05:15:51 5amgl [Reply | View]
The IE themes and control button icons look a lot like what you will find in Firefox. I like Microsoft products, but this looks like someone has done this already.
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From a general std. point
2004-09-01 19:07:09 netstat927 [Reply | View]
Tiger and Lonhorn will both a major hit, Once again the business market will enjoy the use of Windows and Mac users will have to deal with the jokes from guys that are using Redhat/SUSE/BSD....
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Windows Longhorn
2004-09-01 19:01:08 netstat927 [Reply | View]
I have deployed my distribution copy, and I have made into a dev. machine of it's kind. Visual Studio.net, VS.net 2005 express and Office 2003 currently working on more streamline functions with the Indigo and Graphic arts communications. Supporting High-water cards, RIP technology and graphic intense PDFX_1/A files and Tiff-it files, with this in mind just a quick response to Mac OS X users, I use a Mac and I am running MAC OS X / Server and I find the use of windows is a greater when it comes to business communications and System functions........MMC/Regedit/msconfig/policies/the works....
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Longhorn latest build
2004-06-07 14:42:26 Weenie [Reply | View]
Not convinced im affraid.
Just looks like MAC OS X to me - only less clean, intuitive and abviously ripping off Apple's innovations as normal from Microsoft.
Somethings never change...
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new "Features"
2004-05-26 05:23:42 chekote [Reply | View]
Well I am definately underwhelmed at the moment. Sure it looks nice, but so did XP. I was expecting a host of revolutionary features, but at the moment it just looks like a slightly modified XP.
Hopefully they are just keeping the real big features under wraps until they are closer to ship date.
The "3D Desktop" is kind of pointless, unless it does a lot more than the alt-tab switching. Thats just an existing feature skewed into the 3rd dimension. It doesnt add any extra functionality at all. Just looks like a gimmick to me... -
new "Features"
2004-06-25 12:55:42 xeroply [Reply | View]
XP looks "nice" if you have an aesthetic sensibility strongly reminiscent of Fisher Price toys.
(OK, to be fair I liked the new buttons and tabs a lot, but the giant plastic-y window borders were so awful I shut off the whole "Luna" theme)
I talked to a guy recently who is working for MS on Longhorn. He's on 3 projects: glitch-free media playback, the new full-3D drawing system, and a third one he wasn't allowed to talk about. So maybe there's some hope for revolutionary features yet.
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3D stacking windows
2004-05-19 09:49:27 xeroply [Reply | View]
"The windows all stack up when you press Alt-Tab."
This looks pretty darn cool, but isn't it kind of the opposite of what should happen from a usability perspective? If I'm trying to find a particular window buried somewhere, I want them to UNstack. (like Expose in Mac OS X 10.3)
This 3D switcher, while offering better visual cues about what you're switching to than the old alt-tab behavior, is still a linear form of access (assuming it doesn't let you click on one of the windows you see at the bottom of the stack to immediately switch to that one.) Expose, on the other hand, allows random access -- click any window to switch to it.
And, despite being 3D in appearence, the Longhorn switcher organizes information along 1 dimension (the "Z axis" of the window stack), whereas Expose organizes windows using both dimensions of a 2D screen.
However, to drastically change Windows would alienate the people who struggle to get a grip of what they already know because it shifts the goal posts further. That said, it is hard for Microsoft to do anything REALLY amazing.
On the other hand, they've done what they do every single time. Copied Apple. And then they have the nerve to call their anti-monopoly campaign "the freedom to innovate". Please, Longhorn is going to suck. Not as much as XP, but it will still suck.