The Truth About Windows Alternatives

Microsoft's Longhorn Plays Catch-Up

The better security, stunning visuals, and useful productivity enhancements in Tiger and Linux are what made us consider Windows alternatives in the first place. What is Microsoft doing to close the gap? Here's what we know at this point about the ways the Longhorn operating system--due to be released in late 2006--will try to catch up with our favorite features from the Mac and Linux. [Editor's note: On July 22, after the September PC World had gone to press, Microsoft announced that Longhorn would now be called Windows Vista; click here for details.]

Search:Longhorn was supposed to be built around a completely new file system called WinFS, but that won't make it into Longhorn's initial release. Microsoft planned to use WinFS to power up Windows' search capabilities, but the company hasn't given up on improving Windows' desktop search capabilities entirely. Longhorn will let you create virtual lists of files based on search terms, much like the Smart Folders you can create with Mac OS's Spotlight. So far, though, Longhorn's search capabilities don't appear to have the same slick autogrouping function that Spotlight has.

Security:"Safe and secure" is one of the six key pillars on which Microsoft claims to be building Longhorn, and the OS will finally include the two-way Windows firewall that Microsoft originally wanted to have ready for XP Service Pack 2. Beyond that, however, few details have emerged about Longhorn's expanded security features. At press time, none of the security enhancements have made it into the early builds that have been released to developers.

Task Switching:While it's not nearly the same as Tiger's Exposé feature, Microsoft's Alt-Tab Replacement PowerToy for Windows XP displays a thumbnail preview as you Tab through each running application's icon. Microsoft hasn't announced or shown anything like Exposé as part of Longhorn, but the visual enhancements that the company is adding to the OS--see below--certainly would make such a thing possible.

Visuals:Longhorn will lend some slick visual touches to Windows. The OS will use a new graphics engine called Avalon that employs the 3D rendering muscle built into your graphics card. Transparency effects, 3D rotating, and other animations all make appearances in the Aero desktop theme, which also brings the brushed-metal look to the Windows world. But Longhorn's visuals aren't just about eye candy: Microsoft has shown several new folder views that display previews of the documents within them to aid in navigation.

Eric Dahl is a senior editor for PC World.