Gates eager for next Windows rollout

Microsoft Corp. yesterday assured computer hardware makers that the next version of Windows is on track for release by the 2006 holiday season, despite past delays.


		JOSHUA TRUJILLO / P-I
	Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates touts the new features of Longhorn, the code name for the company's next-generation operating system, yesterday at the Windows Hardware Engineering Conference in Seattle.

And Bill Gates himself conceded that he's impatient to see the company finish the next-generation operating system, code-named Longhorn.

"Whenever I see those demos, I just think, 'Gosh, let's get Longhorn done,' " the Microsoft chairman and chief software architect said after a product manager showed Longhorn's graphics capabilities to an audience of hardware makers.

The company demonstrated several of the underlying technologies and features planned for Longhorn as part of Gates' speech yesterday morning at the Windows Hardware Engineering Conference in Seattle.

One of the Longhorn technologies on display is viewed by some analysts as a potential rival to Adobe Systems' popular PDF and PostScript page description language. Dubbed "Metro," the new Microsoft technology would give the next Windows version a built-in method to let people accurately view and print graphical documents even without the application that created the original file. That's also the basic idea behind the Adobe technologies.

"When I look at Metro, I see PDF and PostScript in the cross hairs," Jupiter Research analyst Joe Wilcox said. "Adobe is a very successful company, and PDF is an entrenched technology, but Microsoft is doing what it always is trying to do, and that is woo the developers with an alternative."

In a recent conference call announcing his company's plan to acquire Macromedia, Adobe Chief Executive Bruce Chizen described some of the ideas behind Longhorn as similar to what Adobe and Macromedia have been doing.

Jim Allchin, Microsoft group vice president, said he expects some people to use the Metro technologies in the way they use PDF. But he said Metro is more focused on ensuring fidelity and accuracy in printing by way of Windows

"Can it be used in other ways? The answer is, yes it could," Allchin said. "But it's not like we're on a path to say, 'Oh, you shouldn't use PDF.' "

Apart from the Longhorn preview, Gates yesterday showed new hardware products and prototypes that expand the concept of the Tablet PC. He also announced the availability of long-awaited editions of Windows for advanced, 64-bit microprocessors from Advanced Micro Devices and Intel.

But nearly half his 90-minute presentation was dedicated to Longhorn and related technologies. Windows remains Microsoft's most profitable product, and the company wants to rally hardware companies to make machines that take full advantage of the next version.

Microsoft's hardware conference this year comes a few days before Apple Computer releases its next operating system, Mac OS X Tiger. Some of Tiger's features, including fast file searching, are similar to those Microsoft promises to deliver in Longhorn next year. Apple executives have touted the fact that they're bringing the features to market first, dismissing Microsoft as imitator.

At Apple's annual meeting last week, CEO Steve Jobs said Microsoft was "shamelessly" copying OS X, The Associated Press reported. "They can't even copy fast," Jobs said.

But Microsoft's Allchin yesterday said it was Apple that "became fixated on Longhorn" after Microsoft showed some of its early work on file-searching capabilities at a software development event in October 2003.

Allchin described Apple as "a very innovative company." However, he said, "in this particular case, I think they saw something that we were doing that was pretty cool." He called file searching "only one little piece of what's in Longhorn."

He added, "There is a question of how much we should show, so that they can try to copy again."

Longhorn's release next year will come a full five years after the release of the current version, Windows XP, an unusually large amount of time between releases. Allchin acknowledged that many companies making Windows-based hardware and software would have wanted Longhorn to be released much earlier.

At the same time, he pointed out that the company has released several variations of Windows in the interim, including three versions for Media Center PCs and two versions for Tablet PCs. The company also released Service Pack 2, a major Windows XP update meant to heighten the security of the current operating system.

"SP2 probably had the biggest impact on us, because we took so many resources and diverted them to do this security-focused work," Allchin said. That added to the Longhorn delay, he said, because "we took all of the resources in some of those areas totally off while we did that."

Microsoft previously had demonstrated Longhorn's file-searching feature as part of an advanced file system known as WinFS. That system has been delayed until after the 2006 Longhorn release, to help the company hit the 2006 release deadline.

But Allchin pointed out that fast file searching isn't dependent upon WinFS, and he said the demonstration yesterday was in part an effort to counter the misconception that fast file searching wouldn't be included in Longhorn.

Microsoft also showed other elements of the Longhorn interface, including keyword-based "dynamic folders" and the ability to reflect the actual contents of a file in its icon.

About 2,800 people from 500 companies are attending the Microsoft hardware conference this year. The company uses the annual event to discuss its long-term plans with people who make computers, components and drivers for Windows machines.

P-I reporter Todd Bishop can be reached at 206-448-8221 or toddbishop@seattlepi.com

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