Mood:
vegas luckyNow Playing: 'The Smell of Burnt Rawhide' Rustlers grab wrong bunch of cows. (Adventure / Calamity)
Topic: The Sneaky Runarounds
This one (just one? surely there will be plenty more) Mary Jo Foley article about a group of developers recently building out what was pulled from Longhorn years ago demonstrates the indisputable contention Microsoft HAD sophisticated Web-based XML capabilities long ago (while VCSY was in the throes of a court battle with Chinadotcom/Ross Systems that threatened to destroy Vertical) but those capabilities were taken out.
And now? Not.
In other words I contend Microsoft had a great deal of next generation functionality in Longhorn (the original Longhorn, not the gelded gilding you see in the Microsoft petting zoo today) that would have required XML enablement which is described in the XML Enabler Agent patent description (re: USPTO 7,076,521 ) (WinFS is a perfect example of enablement on the NTFS operating system files for a virtualized operating system view - a very valuable capability in its own right) and operated using methods described by the SiteFlash patent (re: USPTO 6,826,744 ) and built using a dynamic markup language and environment as described by the Emily patent application.
We see Longhorn's horns (it can go on the web or it can operate on the operating system - wow. Large spread.) and we see the tips are sharp (the dilemma Microsoft is impaled upon - show it? don't show it? oooch ouuuch).
Where did Longhorn's productive centers go? Cut off. Cut off? That's right pilgrim. Lopped. Separated. Undone. Put in a jar. Cut nuglets just when Microsoft needed them most... cut off after November 2004. Right after the SiteFlash patent (which would be the overall ecology for the above mentioned web-based XML oeprations) was granted VCSY and right at the time Microsoft was losing a key player in their web/XML operations as Mark Lucovsky announced he was leaving to take the whole operational concept to Google (which proceded to field exactly those kinds of operations in 2005 adding billions to their market cap in the process)... all the while VCSY remained silent... writing it all down.
As it stands now, Microsoft can't get Longhorn out of the vet's office (guess can't get vetted by Microsoft lawyers - the people who know if you have the grublets to make it through the barnyard without getting pecked to incapacitation), so developers outside the company take it upon themselves (and thus take on a huge legal liability as, to this point, all software patents have not been ruled invalid by the courts of this land) to build out what Longhorn clearly was able to demonstrate and provide long ago.
I get the bubbly grits (that "gut" feeling) we're going to be seeing a number of items come out publicly that show where and when Microsoft stepped on their own boombas and realized they weren't going to be able to simply move the bull from the barn to the great outdoors.
We should start calling Longhorn "Longago". It fits better than simply 'a pile of nervous bull on the move'.
For background here is a Mary Jo post from October 2006 about the Longhorn reanimation project before you read on to the rest of the story. Imagine, seven (7) months work and these people did what Microsoft has not been able to do in three or four years. Amazing. I guess less really is more.
May 24th, 2007
Enthusiasts progress with plans to resurrect Windows ‘Longhorn’
Posted by Mary Jo Foley @ 7:22 am Categories: Vista, Windows client, Corporate strategy, Code names Tags: Microsoft Windows, Microsoft Longhorn, Microsoft Corp., Mary Jo FoleySeven months after announcing plans to take up where Microsoft left off with its Windows Longhorn client development, a group of members of the Joejoe.org site have built a working protype of what they’re calling “Longhorn Reloaded.”
Earlier this week, the Longhorn Reloaded developers and testers posted for download Milestone 1 of Longhorn Reloaded.
“Longhorn Reloaded is a Project dedicated to the revival of the Operating System known as Code Name ‘Longhorn’. To put the projects aims simply, we aim to finish off what Microsoft started before the operating system was canceled. It is a modification of Windows 6.0.4074, which was originally released during the 2004 Windows Hardware Engineers Conference,” explained the Longhorn Reloaded team on the Joejoe Web site.
For the record, Microsoft officials never claimed Longhorn, the release of Windows now known as Vista, was cancelled. Instead, Microsoft execs said they “reset” their plans for Longhorn in 2004 by decided to cut the Windows File System (WinFS) feature from the product and to use the Windows Server 2003 kernel as the core platform. But a number of developers and industry watchers have said they considered Vista to be a far cry from the operating system Microsoft originally demonsrated and described earlier this decade.
When the Longhorn Reloaded team announced its intentions to build a version of Windows built on the pre-release Build 4074 of Longhorn, many said it couldn’t be done. If technical roadblocks didn’t make the mission impossible, Microsoft’s legal department would, the critics said. (heh heh yeah we'll see)
“I would like to announce you that what no one could believe has finally reach(ed) a concrete delivery,” said Jemaho, a k a JeanMarie Houvenaghel, the founder of Joejoe.org and supervisor of the Longhorn Reloaded project., via e-mail. “The enthusiasm for this project has never failed and is even more great now.”
I asked Jemaho for a target date as to when the team hopes to be able to deliver a “final” release of Longhorn Reloaded. No word back yet. I also asked whether Microsoft officials had expressed displeasure with what the Longhorn Reloaded team is trying to do. Also no response yet.
When I asked Microsoft about the Longhorn Reloaded team’s efforts in October 2006, here is the response I received from a Microsoft spokeswoman:
“Microsoft actively encourages and supports independent developers to take advantage of the features available in our platform to create their own applications and services; however, the Windows end user licensing agreement does not allow users to modify and redistribute our code in this manner.”
Would you be interested in trying out Longhorn Reloaded? If and when the final is out, would you consider running it?
Well, now, ain't THAT some expletives deleted?
"Enthusiasts". Hmmm. Our Very Own Troll is an enthusiast, I believe. He enthusiastically goes after large money piles held by crooks... errr... 'defendants'. Sorry. I didn't know there was womens and childrens present. heh heh Howdy ma'am. Yes ma'am, that truly is a lovely finger.
Maybe Vertical can get these nice young people to describe what all they had to put back in to the Longhorn to get it to walk without shuffling.
And for all our argumentative friends who don't think there's anything stinky about this situation, I guess I'll have to draw some pictures. Fortunately, here and A Laughing Place 3 , we have the opportunity to do just that... post pictures and drawings. It's what you have to do for some people who don't know they're standing right in the middle of a large accumulated pile of bull product. For more information see: Longhorn Reloaded
UPDATE
Well, I was right as usual. There is another group trying to stuff their own image of a Longhorn with the "Retrophase" Project. I wonder why Microsoft is tolerating this invasion of their IP sanctuary unless they're afraid of going after these kinds of developments for the stink that would ensue.
Dag nabbit, Roy. Them's rustlers!
Calm down, Gabby. They're just hungry farmhands looking for a sirloin.
Well I say we needs to nail 'em up by the fuzzies!!
