Longhorn backs thick client model

Call it the revenge of the Windows client — or the revelation of Microsoft's three new technology pillars.

Longhorn, the forthcoming version of Windows, made its first public outing at last week's Professional Developers Conference (PDC) in Los Angeles.

Not due until 2005 or 2006, Longhorn represents Microsoft's determination to strengthen its desktop stronghold by fostering a new generation of Internet-aware applications.
Underpinning that strategy are Longhorn's three main technology pillars: Avalon, the glossy new 3D GUI; WinFS, a new, XML-based storage scheme; and Indigo, a messaging technology based on Web services. All three fall under the moniker WinFX, an upgrade of the .Net Framework and the new Longhorn application development environment.

Avalon's role can be seen as an attempt to raise the desktop ante with compelling 3D extensions to the Windows GUI so that browser apps pale even more in comparison.

For years, Microsoft has argued that browser-based apps are a step backward. The company has suggested these apps be replaced by smart, Internet-aware client applications that exploit all that excess processing power at the edge of the network — that is, desktop computers running Windows.

Greg Sullivan, lead product manager at Microsoft's Windows development group, acknowledged that "we now live in a world where the dominant application model is living in a Web page" despite the fact that the client must always be connected, that the server becomes a bottleneck, and that HTML apps are clunky to build and use. He noted that even in current desktop applications, hardware is not fully utilized, particularly the GPU (graphics processing unit) now mostly used for games.

Avalon will need all the computing power it can find. Although a subset of the new Avalon graphics subsystem will run on today's hardware, Microsoft technical evangelist Darryn Dieken said developers will need hardware not yet available if they "want a rich visual experience with all the 3D controls."

According to Sullivan, programming will actually be easier with Avalon than with current Windows GUI development thanks to XAML (XML Application Markup Language), which will simplify the creation of graphical interfaces. Moreover, XAML code can be passed from other apps.

Greg DeMichillie, lead analyst at Directions on Microsoft, explained that enterprise customers will have "the possibility of letting graphic artists more directly create the user interface either by entering the markup themselves or by using graphics tools as opposed to programmer tools."
DeMichillie added that the Avalon proposition hinges on a simple question. "Will consumers go out and buy another PC and upgrade, or will corporations buy a new PC and upgrade to get Avalon? Well, the answer to that will depend largely on whether there's some great Avalon app that's so compelling that they say, 'Yeah, I gotta have it,' " DeMichillie said.

One example of Avalon's capabilities was a shopping application developed by Amazon and demonstrated at PDC by Jim Allchin, vice president of Microsoft's platforms group. This downloadable, smart 3D client applied a Rolodex-like metaphor that illustrated the power of WinFS, the new unified storage model. When a user looks up information in a desktop calendar app, for example, it suggests a gift for mom's imminent birthday.

Microsoft revealed previously that WinFS will run on top of rather than replace its existing NTFS (NT File System). But last week the company revealed WinFS will tie into XML-based data storage, enabling developers to exploit standard XML interfaces to data previously locked up in desktop applications.

"The fact that we can start to view information in a consistent way and sort in a consistent way is important," said Ted Schandler, research director at Forrester Research. "Instead of five different storage formats on the client, you've got one. And that's a big deal."

But Schandler and several others reserved their highest praise for Indigo. According to Microsoft Director of Web Services Marketing Steven VanRoekel, Indigo is "a comprehensive implementation of messaging technology" that includes such draft Web services protocols as WS-Policy, WS-Security, WS-Trust, WS-Federation, WS-ReliableMessaging, WS-Coordination, and more.

"Indigo is the closest thing I've seen to XML-based middleware, pure Web-services-based middleware," said John Rhymer, vice president of Giga Research. "People have been talking about this for four years, and here you've got it. It looks like a really good piece of work."
VanRoekel insisted that Indigo goes beyond conventional middleware in its ability to provide standardized, message-based communications to desktop applications. As a part of the Longhorn environment, it changes the way developers view the applications they build from the bottom up, enabling them to assume secure, coordinated, message-based connectivity to other applications from the outset.

"If you're thinking about Web services, you're immediately faced with the kinds of problems that Indigo is meant to solve," Directions on Microsoft's DeMichillie said. "How do I do secure Web services? How do I do Web services that participate in business transactions? So Indigo is the piece I think most corporate developers are going to go home and … immediately start playing with it, at least in an early form."

Make that "very early." Questions as to why Indigo, WinFS, and Avalon were being unveiled years before Longhorn will ship circulated throughout the conference. The darker view was summed up by Giga's Rhymer: "Any discussion of Longhorn at this stage of the game is so, so early that it looked to me like freezing-the-market tactics. It really looked like this is part of the [anti-]Linux campaign."

According to Microsoft representatives, the company used PDC to solicit developer feedback in order to refine its plans. Microsoft also needs developers to create killer Longhorn apps to make the platform's benefits crystal clear — and to drive upgrades to yet another new generation of Windows-based computing.