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Microsoft Axes WinFS, Cancels Beta 2 | |
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| Time: 00:33 EST/05:33 GMT | News Source: BetaNews | Posted By: Kenneth van Surksum | ||
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The lead program manager for WinFS, Quentin Clark, has announced that his product is no more -- at least in its current form. Just one week after a slew of WinFS sessions at TechEd, Microsoft has decided not to continue development on the new file system, canceling the expected Beta 2 release. Although the status of WinFS has already changed a number of times, it seems Microsoft has finally given up on once-lofty plans to completely re-architect the way Windows stores files. The idea of WinFS, or Windows File Store, was to create a "sea of data" that abolishes the need for the standard file and folder hierarchy. | ||
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| #1 By 5912 (62.58.60.27) at 6/26/2006 3:18:05 AM |
| Shocking, since WinFS seemed like such a great idea and because Microsoft made such a big deal out of it. I know that it wasn't supposed to be included in Vista anymore but this is yet again a big defeat for Microsoft. |
| #2 By 5444 (170.35.224.65) at 6/26/2006 7:52:49 AM |
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rnmboon,
While WinFS is no longer a seperate deliverable. Most of the API will be built into ADO.net. Also in Katmai, Most of the Entity and Management support will be built in. and there will still be the free Sql Server Express;) So in effect that only leaves support in the shell which is what was missing with all the winfs releases after the august restructure anyway and we have not heard all the plans for fiji:) or for that matter v.next of windows. El |
| #3 By 15406 (216.191.227.68) at 6/26/2006 8:41:17 AM |
| More vapourware. Microsoft leads the world in empty promise innovation. |
| #4 By 7754 (216.160.8.41) at 6/26/2006 10:04:26 AM |
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Microsoft leads the world in empty promise innovation.
While I am very, very disappointed in this (though I'm waiting to find out the full implications of how it affects Windows--the blog post was quite "obfuscatory," as another blogger aptly put it), I can think of many other companies that would easily steal this title from Microsoft. What irks me as much as (if not more than) the decision to drop WinFS is the blog post itself. After following Microsoft for several years, I've been really impressed lately at the transparency that they seemed to embrace (to varying degrees in different divisions)--Scoble, the other bloggers (especially Jensen Harris's excellent blog, among others), Channel9, etc. This was an exercise in the opposite of that. I don't mind if they want to sugar-coat bad news a little bit, but don't tell us--especially after the previous blog entry (!) that talks about the excitement behind demoing (and developing for!!) WinFS beta 2 at TechEd--how fantastic it is to dismantle WinFS and part it out to SQL and ADO.NET. Just bite the darn bullet and tell us directly, and tell us why it was a necessary decision in some detail. I'm quite sure this decision wasn't made lightly, unless it has something to do with BillG leaving. |
| #5 By 37047 (216.191.227.68) at 6/26/2006 11:46:54 AM |
| WinFS: The 'Duke Nukem Forever' of file systems. |
| #6 By 23275 (209.149.207.40) at 6/26/2006 1:37:20 PM |
| One has to be very careful when evaluating this.... WinFS - in that name may be dead, but..... one needs to look at how MS has been evolving virtualization of the name space and what that signals. One should properly conclude that WinFS was made irrelevant in its present form. The "sea of information" description close, but the word, "Ocean" should have been used. Don't be quick to judge this one in the context suggested in the thread. |
| #7 By 2459 (24.175.137.81) at 6/26/2006 1:40:01 PM |
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BillG won't be leaving for 2 years (and even then not really leaving).
It appears ADO.NET via LINQ/eSQL will become the API for data access with all data stores building off of the Entity Data Model. This is the basis of the universal store. The big question is how the store will surface as part of Windows. Will the Windows store be delivered as part of a .NET update, an OS update, or as a SQL Express type product as eldoen mentions. It will likely be some combination of the above. There's documentation currently on MSDN about the EDM: http://msdn.microsoft.com/data/default.aspx?pull=/library/en-us/dnvs05/html/nxtgenda.asp http://msdn.microsoft.com/data/default.aspx?pull=/library/en-us/dnvs05/html/ADONETEnFrmOvw.asp and the one linked from WinFS Blog: http://msdn.microsoft.com/data/default.aspx?pull=/library/en-us/dnvs05/html/ADONET_EDM.asp |
| #8 By 7754 (216.160.8.41) at 6/26/2006 2:54:55 PM |
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n4cer: BillG may not have left per se, but my impression was that he was beginning the process of handing over the reigns now and continually over the course of the next two years. I'm guessing the power structure may not need to be so clear, but I wouldn't be the first to suggest that perhaps Ozzie axed the project.
At any rate, you seem to have a better handle on the nuts and bolts of this than most. Perhaps you can answer a question that I have. Initially when WinFS was proposed (when I first heard of it as WinFS), the assumption--which went uncorrected for a long time by Microsoft--was that it would be a file system to replace NTFS. Later on, Microsoft said that WinFS would ride on top of NTFS, but would be the storage model for Longhorn. Then, of course, we all found out that WinFS was dropped from Longhorn, but would be shipped at a later date. This brought about the question of how WinFS would be delivered--as an optional add-on rather than the core storage model, how many people would deploy it? It would have been the chicken-and-the-egg syndrome--the applications wouldn't support it until it was broadly deployed, but deployment would be driven by application support. If this comes out as a SQL Express add-on, how will it ever receive traction? In my opinion, Microsoft either has to ditch this altogether or drive it forward as the sole data model. If they just throw it out there as a this-is-cool, let's-see-what-people-do-with-it kind of thing, it will die a slow death (just like IFS). |
| #9 By 2459 (24.175.137.81) at 6/26/2006 4:33:07 PM |
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Like everyone, I'm just trying to read their moves based on what's developed over the last 3 years, and what's to come (and I've got a lot more reading to do on the new stuff :-) ).
RE: Chicken-and-egg If by "sole data model", you're talking about the model for data within the store, I agree. It looks like EDM will be what binds everything together. There's a diagram on MSDN that shows it mainly in the context of SQL ( http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/en-us/dnvs05/html/nxtgen09L.gif ), but it looks like this is the model they will extend everywhere possible. In short, WinFS Items are now Entities. If you mean that WinFS in its new form must be the sole means of accessing data on your harddrive, I disagree. WinFS in its original form used NTFS for storage of file-backed items. If you have no need for anything more than basic file I/O, you don't need WinFS. They may end up taking a more integrated approach though since they're now refactoring, but it doesn't have to be the only means for data access. As far as how the store will be delivered, it's got to be an add-on unless MS ships it as part of a new Windows release. I don't see it as something the ISV will always have to bind with every app they produce however. I think the ship vehicle will be something bound to be rolled back into the base platform at some point. If it's some SQL Express or Express-derived SKU, then that will start to be an integrated part of the platform rather than always shipping seperate as it does currently. WinFX, nka .NET 3.0, is how I see WinFS shipping -- first as an add-on, then an assured part of future platform releases. Because of urges for downlevel distribution dating back to PDC 2003, and the legacy installed base of their business customers, I don't see MS just integrating into Windows v.Next without supporting existing platforms. Keep in mind that "existing platforms" is relative to the WinFS shipping timeframe, and may not mean XP as it does now (Think platform N-1; N being the newest release). Like many, I'm looking forward to future posts from WinFS Team/MS to clear things up. They may not have everything in order to announce all the details right away though. This post was edited by n4cer on Monday, June 26, 2006 at 16:39. |
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