WinInfo Short Takes: Why Longhorn is a Train Wreck

WinInfo Short Takes: Why Longhorn is a Train Wreck: "However, it's clear now that Microsoft is not so much a single enormous entity as it is 100's of large, autonomous entities. And getting these groups to work in concert is almost impossible. Longhorn, by early 2004, was teetering under the weight of all the features it was supposed to support, and nearing collapse. So Microsoft went back to scratch, rebuilt a componentized version of Windows Server 2003 with SP1 to serve as the Longhorn foundation, and then started adding back Longhorn features.
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If all doesn't go well, then we're looking at what amounts to a Windows XP Feature Pack. Compared to the original vision for Longhorn, that's a train wreck.
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Why Longhorn is Going to Rock
On the flipside, it's important to understand that the public still hasn't seen a lot of the cool features that Microsoft will be including in Longhorn. These features will still make for a compelling release, though we may be wondering in late 2006 why it took over 5 years to deliver them. For example, the final Aero Glass user interface is far nicer than anything the company has shown off publicly yet, and will indeed be visually impressive. And there's a lot going on in the digital media space that I can't talk about yet. Beta 1 will have some of this stuff, but Beta 2 will be even more impressive. Alas, that release could drift into early 2006."