Comments

AIM48 wrote:

I don't understnad if I have hardware that has a 5% utilization rate then just add more apps to this server instance itself - instead of loping off another x percent for the virtualization software to run an entire new instance of the OS?
 

Imagine you're running Exchange and a web server on the same machine. If a patch comes out for Exchange that requires a reboot, you have to take down the web server unnecessarily.

With virtual servers, you can keep separate applications in separate VMs, thus improving availability. Plus you know with absolute certainty that the Exchange patch won't break the web server since they are running on separate (albeit virtual) machines.

Virtualization is very, very cool indeed!

Fantastic video. Everything from Assembly to Managed code, how much cooler can you be?

Printing to PDF is easy (there are already free solutions), the problem is that you lose a lot of information that way (hyperlinks, document flow etc) - this is something that can only really be added by native PDF support at the application level.

PDF support in Vista would be great, not sure we'll see it though (sadly)

jsrfc58 wrote:

Don't you mean Konfabulator was a glint in Steve Jobs eye? That "widget" project was released in February 2003.  When did the Longhorn pre-beta come out?

Well, Paul Thurrott had screenshots of the sidebar as far back as November 2002. Make of that what you will...

You realise, of course, that the sidebar and gadgets were seen in the Longhorn pre-beta long before Apple's Dashboard was even a glint in Steve Jobs eye...

Nice video, good to see Bill is still enthusiastic about what MSFT are up to. I'm more intrigued by Office 12 than ever.

Beer, yes WinFS sits on top of NTFS at the moment because it currently makes more sense for it to do so (performance, compatability, tried and tested resiliance etc) but that doesn't necessarily always have to be the case.

After all, SQL Server 2000 can already use raw partitions for storing databases and it's not that big a step from there to storing files directly in the database rather than externally on a file system.

2003 R2 is a pretty cool product. I'm glad it's a bit more public now as it's been difficult biting my tongue to avoid mentioning it whenever W3bbo brings up POSIX compliance...

The *nix interoperability stuff in it is supremely cool.

The litte tools in both the Education and Experience packs are really neat, they really show the Tablet design off well.

Hexic, is completely and utterly addictive though. More so than even Spider Solitare!

Time for the almost obligatory Windows Internals link. It is by far and away the best reference material on what goes on inside the bowels of Windows.

A truly fascinating and insightful read.