WinFS Blog:Update to the Update
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June 26, 2006 Hi. Wow there has been a lot of, let’s say, interest in the posting Friday. I knew there would be interest, and I knew that the news that we would not ship WinFS as a separate thing would make news, but didn’t expect quite the thread lengths we are seeing! Whew. There are obviously a lot of questions on people’s minds. So I post again today trying to answer some of them. To those who think I am not a real person but rather a name in front of PR machinery – that’s just not true. I am flesh and blood – with a job, a team, and a passion for what we have been pursuing in WinFS. And even a life outside of Microsoft Building 35 with a wife, kids and other interests. Certainly seems like I might have been too careful in wording last week – was not my intention to offend bloggers everywhere, really. OK, here are the questions/answers. 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. 𝗗𝗼𝗲𝘀 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗽𝗹𝗮𝗻 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗪𝗶𝗻𝗙𝗦 𝗵𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝗮𝗻𝘆 𝗶𝗺𝗽𝗮𝗰𝘁 𝗼𝗻 𝗪𝗶𝗻𝗱𝗼𝘄𝘀 𝗩𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗮? There is no impact on Windows Vista. We announced back in August 2004 that WinFS would not be in Windows Vista. 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. 𝗪𝗵𝘆 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗽𝗮𝗿𝘁𝘀 𝗼𝗳 𝗪𝗶𝗻𝗙𝗦 𝗴𝗼𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗼 𝗦𝗤𝗟 𝗦𝗲𝗿𝘃𝗲𝗿? We have a vision around data that guides us we call the "Data Platform Vision". We’ve been talking with customers about this for some time, and we have heard consistent positive feedback. It was clear that the integrated storage and automation features of WinFS will help SQL Server deliver on the "Beyond Relational" and "Continuous Availability and Automation" promises of that vision. We decided to focus resources on delivering these technologies to our customers as part of the Data Platform Vision in the near term. 𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁'𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘂𝗽𝘀𝗶𝗱𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗱𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗹𝗼𝗽𝗲𝗿𝘀? We believe that including some of the WinFS work in SQL will broaden which developers will benefit from that database, and further we believe the ADO.NET for Orcas innovations will make using a database a lot easier and more productive for developers. Our Data Platform Vision talks about 𝒀𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝑫𝒂𝒕𝒂, 𝑨𝒏𝒚 𝑷𝒍𝒂𝒄𝒆, 𝑨𝒏𝒚 𝑻𝒊𝒎𝒆. It’s a compelling vision, and we will continue to invest in the desktop versions of SQL (SQL Express and now SQL Everywhere) as well as the Server. 𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗶𝘀 𝗮 𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗽 𝘃𝗲𝗵𝗶𝗰𝗹𝗲? 𝗪𝗵𝘆 𝗱𝗼𝗲𝘀 𝗶𝘁 𝗺𝗮𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗪𝗶𝗻𝗙𝗦 𝗶𝘀 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗮 "𝘀𝗲𝗽𝗮𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗽 𝘃𝗲𝗵𝗶𝗰𝗹𝗲"? A ship vehicle is the method in which we bring a technology to market. This could be a separate product release, a service pack to an existing product, or an integrated technology in a larger product platform. We announced the removal of WinFS from Longhorn two years ago, and talked about WinFS being a separate ship vehicle. But we are no longer are planning to release a separate WinFS delivery vehicle. 𝗪𝗮𝘀 𝗪𝗶𝗻𝗙𝗦 "𝗸𝗶𝗹𝗹𝗲𝗱" 𝗯𝗲𝗰𝗮𝘂𝘀𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝗶𝘁𝘀 𝗱𝗲𝘀𝗶𝗴𝗻? No. In fact, the Beta was coming together really well. People have speculated on "redesigns." The original goals of WinFS have never changed, but the technology we are building isn’t easy – so we did take a number of internal design changes and re-writes. And I am not going to apologize for that. Getting the relational engine to behave and perform like the Windows filesystem isn’t a matter of a few lines of code – it has to be done very carefully and architected right. The bars on performance, compatibility, etc. are all super high. 𝗪𝗵𝘆 𝗱𝗶𝗱 𝗠𝗶𝗰𝗿𝗼𝘀𝗼𝗳𝘁 𝗮𝗻𝗻𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗻𝗼𝘄 𝗮𝗳𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝘁𝗮𝗹𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝗪𝗶𝗻𝗙𝗦 𝗮𝘁 𝗧𝗲𝗰𝗵𝗘𝗱 𝘀𝗼 𝗿𝗲𝗰𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗹𝘆? When we were at TechEd, we had not made the decision. Sure, it was under discussion, but we did not have all the information we needed and we had not made the call yet. We did share the news as soon as we had the final word. We could have waited longer to disclose the information and made the change in plans less of a contrast, but we chose to notify people as soon as we could. This is why we used the blog and didn’t fire-up the big MS PR machinery – that takes time. Author: Quentin Clark