Windows Future Storage Stands Alone
Windows Future Storage Stands Alone
June 27th, 2006:Microsoft's new Vista operating system will appear without the much-vaunted WinFS data storage and management software.
WinFS, which has been in development since 2003, made use of relational databases to provide the kind of file management not usually seen at the desktop. The integration of the system into Vista has, however, now been spiked. Instead, elements of the code developed so far will be used with MS's latest SQL server and its ActiveX Data Objects (ADO.NET).
The news was broken by Quentin Clark, director of program management at Microsoft on the WinFS team's blog, as follows:
"We got far enough along and were pushed on the general applicability of the work that we made the choice to not have it be just about WinFS but make it more general purpose. These changes do mean that we are not pursuing a separate delivery of WinFS, including the previously planned Beta 2 release".
WinFS was designed to organise data by tracking relationships between disparate pieces of data (photographs and PowerPoint presentations for example), thus enabling more organised searches.
This caused a stream of 'comment' ranging from cool resignation via perky upbeat 'look to the future' all the way to invective. Clark responded with an FAQ that contains the following:
Is WinFS dead?
Yes and No. Yes, we are not going to ship WinFS as a separate, monolithic software component. But the answer is also No - the vision remains alive and we are moving the technology forward. A lot of the technology really was database stuff - and we're putting that into SQL and ADO. But some of the technology, especially the end user value points, are not ready, and we're going to continue to work on that in incubation. Some or all of these technologies may be used by other Microsoft products going forward.
Will the "Relational Filesystem" ever be in Windows?
Hey - we are very busy finishing Vista, and just aren't ready to talk about what comes next. The vision for a richer storage in Windows is very much alive. With the new tools for searching and organizing information in Windows Vista, we are taking a good step towards that vision."