Micosoft gambles on Windows update
crmassist.com | at | by Mike
Will Longhorn take the blue ribbon, or get slaughtered? Microsoft Corp. is banking on the former. Others aren't so sanguine. Longhorn is the code name for the next top-secret version of Microsoft's cash-cow Windows software, a product Microsoft hopes will ring up new sales and stave off competitors such as the rival Linux operating system. But as thousands of engineers in Redmond labor to bring Longhorn to market, some in the technology industry wonder if the much-anticipated product will fall flat.
One major problem: Longhorn, envisioned as breakthrough software that could improve computer security, data storage and the look and feel of Windows, is expected to share key attributes with another operating system Microsoft tried, unsuccessfully, to launch nearly 10 years ago. That ballyhooed project, code-named Cairo, has been largely forgotten by all but computer cognoscenti and the Microsoft engineers who worked on it.