angelneo said:
Actually, what's the RSS feeds for? It's just another XML document on the web to allow portability, what's the point of using it in a desktop environment unless you want to track it through the internet. I don't get why so many people like using the word "RSS", it is just another XML document.... , maybe its an electronic equivalent of stuffing a sock in your pants.
BTW, I do like the other suggestions of Windows VS or Windows Vista OS, rather than Windows Vista, sounds like it is inheriting from Windows XP....
You can subscribe to saved searches and virtual folders. IIRC a saved search can not only encompass files and folders but internet information too. So you could have a virtual folder containing all my documents on Longhorn and any MSDN blog posts on the same topic. Or you can have a virtual folder that exists on a network (like a sharepoint, networked computer, or website) and be updated anytime the contents change. Not only can you be updated when the contents change but the proper apps can be updated as well. So your iPhoto library could update if someone adds a picture to the folder, for example.
But RSS is good for local subscriptions too. Applications can subscribe to each other or you can subscribe to your log files so you know if someone has tried to log on to your computer or not.
There are lost of things you can do with RSS and subscriptions.
"So despite all the development time that's gone in there already, Microsoft are apparently quite open about the fact that they're going to be shipping a product that isn't the finished article. I honestly can't think of another industry or business that could get away with that to the degree that Microsoft does."
They always ship features after the release of the main OS. Media Center and Tablet didn't show up until 2002 while XP was shipped in 2001. DX9 and Windows Media 9 showed up in 2002 also. The XP wave actually started with Office XP which shipped months before XP did IIRC. The Longhorn wave is similar. Exchange 12, Visual Studio 2005, and SQL Server 2005 are part of the "Longhorn Wave" but they'll ship before Longhorn does. WinFS will ship the year after as will Longhorn Server.
It's how they've always done things.
Apple does something similar but they just don't acknowledge that the product is incomplete. Every OS X releasae I can remember has a number of issues, that Apple knew about at launch, that they said they weren't going to fix until a certian time. 10.0 and 10.1 were essiential betas. 10.2 didn't get certian features like journaling until after the launch. Many problems in Panther weren't fixed until 10.3.3. Tiger had a number of known issues and QE2D still doesn't work correctly.
