Longhorn – Initial Thoughts
I have just started setting up Longhorn (beta 3: don’t worry, I’m in the genuine beta testing program). I haven’t got through it all yet however the first thing I noticed is the speed of installation. Like Vista, they’re using image based installs and it shows. The ramp up time (in a VMWare session) was a few minutes from start to finish. Nice
Next surprise is the concept of a GUI-less (sort of) Windows. That is, Longhorn allows you to install a terminal version or a GUI version, obviously taking a leaf out of Linux’s book. This helps “reduce attack surface area” and CPU use (something Linux has had over Windows for a long time.
Once installed (I chose the GUI version – I want to have a look at what Longhorn offers), you’re greated with a very Vista feeling interface, coupled with a very Windows 2003 Server feeling “configure your server” screen. This screen takes you through the key components of setting up the box and simplifies the installation of Active Directory, IIS and many of the new file sharing (Sharepoint) and indexing services. When compared to AD’s first showing in Windows 2000, the installation process is genuinely a lot easier and more powerful (but you’d hope so, almost a decade later).
So I’ll play with it and see how it stacks up. After Vista, I really expect it will just be Windows 2003 with some dressing, but it’s off to a good start.