ExtremeTech Interviews DirectX 10 People

[shnastybiznastic]

ExtremeTech has an interview (http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1697,1982031,00.asp) of two key members of the DirectX 10 team.

Chris Donahue is the Director of Business Development in the Games for Windows Entertainment and Devices Division, while David Blythe is a Software Architect with the Graphics Platforms Unit.
These guys seem to have a handle on what's going on. With WinFSs recent delay, it's nice to see good news about Vista

[FallenStar]

These guys seem to have a handle on what's going on. With WinFSs recent delay, it's nice to see good news about Vista

WinFS has been scrapped for Vista. The announcement came earlier this week. DailyTech (http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=3019) has all the info.

In other Vista news comes word that Microsoft has decided to drop its plans to offer Windows Future Storage (WinFS) as a future update to the operating system -- WinFS Beta 2 has been also cancelled. WinFS was the name for the new file system that was supposed to debut with the shipping version of Windows Vista. Over the course of Vista's long gestation period, WinFS was dropped from the feature count then later brought back to life when it was announced that the file system would be available at a later date as a system upgrade for Vista.

[Roc Ingersol]

winFS was the only thing worth upgrading to Vista for.
It's an unbelievably awesome piece of software.

Without it, Vista is Windows ME redux.
Few interesting capabilities wrapped in bloat and bullshit.

[shnastybiznastic]

WinFS has been scrapped for Vista. The announcement came earlier this week. DailyTech (http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=3019) has all the info.
I was under the impression (from the WinFS developer blog) that they were releasing it within the lifetime of Vista alongside the new MSSQL server.

Without it, Vista is Windows ME redux.
Few interesting capabilities wrapped in bloat and bullshit.
Actually, Vista has a lot of features that I'm sure are earth-shattering for windows people. Most of them are cribbed from the Be/Apple/UNIX book though, so don't expect much that you havent already seen if you are from one of those camps.

[Dabombpizza]

Well...Direct X 10 sounds like a pretty good feature...

[LiquidRain]

I thought WinFS was outright cancelled and that they are rolling whatever good code WinFS had into MS SQL.

[Roc Ingersol]

Actually, Vista has a lot of features that I'm sure are earth-shattering for windows people. Most of them are cribbed from the Be/Apple/UNIX book though, so don't expect much that you havent already seen if you are from one of those camps.
It's covered by the analogy: They're architectural changes, not too dissimilar from the 98 -> ME jump.

They're not a reason for users to upgrade, unless you think that Vista will magically be more secure or stable, just because Microsoft tried really hard this time. (hint: they tried really hard last time too. And the time before.)

Once they round off a couple corners and put a few featuers back in, I'm sure I'll switch to a Vista-based system. It just sure as shit won't be until after the first service pack and winFS.

[SlamDunk]

Good interview, and especially the love for Crytek and Crysis was a very nice thing to read :)

[shnastybiznastic]

It's covered by the analogy: They're architectural changes, not too dissimilar from the 98 -> ME jump.
As far as I knew, windows ME only added the windows file protection, system restore and UPnP. I don't remember any architectural changes in ME, perhaps you meant the ME -> XP change?

[shnastybiznastic]

I thought WinFS was outright cancelled and that they are rolling whatever good code WinFS had into MS SQL.
Good call, you are absoloutley right. That sucks though, I was hoping to get a good journaling, metadata-frendly filesystem for Vista. Looks like I'll be waiting for a Reiser4 plugin before I get Vista. :(

[askheaves]

I'm the biggest Windows Whore around, and after seeing Novell's Suse 10 RC3 today, I don't know if I'll be sticking around the MS side much longer. As soon as I'm sure my .Net development will work seamlessly over on Lunix side, I'm pretty much done with Winders.

[Roc Ingersol]

As far as I knew, windows ME only added the windows file protection, system restore and UPnP. I don't remember any architectural changes in ME, perhaps you meant the ME -> XP change?
Under the hood, ME was an architectural half-step to 2000.
Like any analogy, it isn't perfect. But it's pretty close to how I see things shaking out.

It's a high-system-requirement bloated mess that doesn't offer enough (yet) to justify the upgrade.

[noname989]

Three Main Reasons People will use Vista:

1. It came on their computer they bought from Dell.

2. "X" program requires it.

3. MS will stop sending out hotfixes and service packs (eventually).

The lack of WinFS annoys me, but I'll probably still use it anyway and thats sad.