14 DAY TRIAL // Nick White, Microsoft Product Manager, has put together an interesting video of the features Microsoft has taunted at the PDC in 2003 to be included in the then Windows Longhorn that have become an integer part of Windows Vista.
"During the fall of 2006 as we were completing the final release of Windows Vista, I was getting a lot of questions about how Windows Vista compared to the original vision of Windows Longhorn. I had someone on my team go back and look at the feature set that was first discussed at the October, 2003 PDC and not only did we deliver the key functionality we discussed, but we went beyond and delivered some amazing innovations that we hadn't thought of back in 2003," Allchin explained.
And in fact, as far as the data management scenarios go, the Windows Longhorn capabilities that Microsoft has highlighted at the PDC in 2003 have found their way into Windows Vista. Click here in order to access the video in question. It contains only footage from the PDC in 2003, but if you are familiar with Windows Vista you will have no issues whatsoever to recognize the features.
Although the WinFS storage system has not made it into Windows Vista as it was initially planned, the search infrastructure of the operating system is based on the capabilities delivered by WinFS.
Additionally, the Windows Sidebar, which coincidentally was also named Windows Sidebar in Longhorn, and Microsoft wanted to change its name, RSS support and animated thumbnails are now all features in Windows Vista.