This BusinessWeek article suggests that Longhorn is getting paired down.
This is a good sign--from an engineering standpoint.
Starting at PDC we've been seeing peaks of Longhorn and its features. In fact, the list has been growing--something that as a software developer throws up a caution sign in my mind. Adding features sounds good--because many of them are needed today. However, too many features added at once can create a mess or make something prohibitively expensive or delayed forever.
In fact, the art of effective product development is to build a strong core and add features as time permits and at the same time leave the door open for growth. Cutting features is part of the process--not the exception.
You might presume that everything can be spec'ed and planned out. But factory line-style development isn't as easy to do in reality when you're working on something that's never been done before--like with Longhorn.
Does this mean Longhorn is going to be released sooner now? I don't know. It all depends on what makes it into Longhorn. But at least from a product development standpoint, it's something I expect to see and makes me more comfortable about the future of Longhorn and not less so.
Posted by Loren at April 9, 2004 01:39 PM