RSSWinFS Examples in Action at PDC
By Nate Mook | Published September 14, 2005, 7:08 PM
Although WinFS won't ship until after Windows Vista hits store shelves, the new file system is garnering the attention of PDC 2005 attendees who want to see the capabilities that a relational file system will bring. Microsoft on Wednesday showed off a few examples of WinFS in action.
WinFS isn't a new concept at Microsoft; the company has long made what it calls "integrated storage" a top priority. The new file system was first unveiled at PDC 2003, but many assumed the effort was dead once Microsoft announced WinFS would not be included in Vista.
Not so, says Shishir Mehrotra, head of the WinFS product planning team. "I promise WinFS didn't get cut; I still have a job. If it does get cut, I hope somebody will tell me," he joked.
Instead, as previously reported by BetaNews, WinFS will be delivered out-of-band as part of the WinFX Runtime Components. The technology has also aligned with the Microsoft data stack, so it uses the same APIs as other data types thanks to ADO.NET.
WinFS takes a SQL engine and marries it with NTFS, storing metadata for all files on a system, as well as structured data such as contacts, calendars and more. Asked whether WinFS is an individual file system or simply an extension of NTFS, Mehrotra simply explained: "It's both. It's built on NTFS and it is a file system."
Because databases usually require full-time administrators, Microsoft has built what it calls the "Guardian" to monitor the WinFS store and handle page failures, tuning indices, and "things you would have needed a DBA for," Mehrotra said.
WinFS does away with file and folder hierarchy and replaces it with items and associations. Items can be standard file-backed objects such as images and documents, or objects not backed by tangle files including contacts and e-mail.
For file-backed items, WinFS leverages NTFS to store the data and ensure compatibility with current Win32 applications. When a file is changed, the system re-syncs the necessary metadata with WinFS.
Associations play an important role in establishing relationships between different types of data and allow users to organize information based how it's used. "Tagging and searching isn't enough," said Mehrotra, explaining that data needs to modeled naturally not manually.
Providing an example of how this change could be useful in the real world, Mehrotra described a situation in which a contact's information has changed. WinFS could remove the need to update numerous disparate data stores -- from a local address book to company-wise CRM application -- which can all instead utilize the storage technology.
Beyond that, WinFS also allows items to be grouped into a single, accessible product. For example, people with digital cameras often dump multiple shots of the same subject onto a PC, Mehrotra noted. WinFS would enable those users to choose one item to be representative of all the items.
Beta 1 of WinFS is available now and was distributed at the PDC. The test release works on Windows XP SP2 and Windows Server 2003, in addition to Windows Vista builds.
All in all, this sounds good to me. I can't wait to try it out and start playing around with it. I'm all for new technology and new systems that make things better than they were before. If it helps you get things done quicker and more efficiently, then that's a big plus. Technology is about change, but its also about taking care of business quickly and efficiently. I think if people will keep an open mind and give this a chance, it will be so much easier in the long run. People that keep an open mind will be successful and will adapt, those that don't will ultimately get lost.
Score: 0
|WinFS should really be an interesting and helpful addition. Relational DB is so much more powerful and so much faster than what we now have. Trust me, you'll love it once you get the hang of it.
Score: 0
|My main concern is how to back it up. I haven't seen how the information is actually stored beyond using some sort of SQL backend. Does that mean, to back it up, you have to back up the individual files and the SQL backend?
Score: 0
|I'd imagine that all the meta data would be transported with it automatically. I also assume that it will be used in such a way that the meta-data can be read on another WinFS-compatible system while other systems will just see normal files without the meta-data.
Score: 0
|You are absolutely correct. To a non-WinFS system, the data can be accessed thru a drive/path just like current the current file system.
There's a great video demo, for those interested, on MSDN's Channel-9 website: http://channel9.msdn.com...post.aspx?postid=106356
Score: 0
|Very nice. Thanks for the link =)
Score: 0
|"WinFS takes a SQL engine and marries it with NTFS, storing metadata for all files on a system, as well as structured data such as contacts, calendars and more."
Frikken sweet. It's about time. Why hasn't this been done before now? I'm looking forward to WinFS.
Score: 0
|Yanno, this sucks. After years of mastering the current Win32 API and the NT OS kernel, it's going to be a pain in the ballsa to have to relearn everything all over again in the name of "progress". If Vista and it's various "upgrades" are anything like .NET is to COM, we're in for a bad, bad time.
Prolly time for me to take up a new career, cuz keeping up with MS and their advances is too painful.
Peace
Score: 0
|If that's your outlook then yeah - this probably wasn't the best career for you. Technology is ever changing; thats the way it is. Change, is good.
If you want a more static career, where not much details change - try real estate? or maybe accounting.
Score: 0
|It's still going to be backwards compatible, just like all versions of Windows have been. You'll only need to learn the new APIs if you want to take advantage of the new features, which hopefully, people will want to do...
Score: 0
|Win32 isn't going anywhere.
In fact, Gates said one time that it will be a part of Windows as long as he's alive.
They understand the importance of backwards compatability and only expect devs to transition gradually.
Score: 0
|Gates also said no one would ever need more that 64Kb of memory. =p
Score: 0
|No, actually, he never said that.
http://www.wired.com/new...ics/0,1283,1484,00.html
http://tafkac.org/celebr...gates/gates_memory.html
Score: 0
|Interesting...
You know what's funny is that one of my instructors told that to me in my Gen. Computer Science class last year (everyone in my major has to take it =( ).
Guess he read it somewhere and thought they were a reliable source =p
Score: 0
|Uh, real estate changes way more than operating systems dude. Get you facts stright before making yourself look like a fool.
Score: 0
|Sorry George, but I cannot agree with this. MS broke compatibility with all BASIC languages with the release of the .NET framework. Millions of lines of VB code incompatible with .NET. Read the article below.
http://www.vbclassic.com/petition
No backwards compatibility for BASIC at all. Also, lack of backwards compatibility lead to the concept of DLL Hell, which the .NET frameowrk was supposed to fix. It didn't, all they did was move DLL hell from COM to .NET.
Yeah, they might keep Win32 and COM for a little while, but ultimately, it will be weeded out.
Score: 0
|Not quite. Indigo will replace the current GUI. WinFS will replace (or mangle) the current file system. Remember that it's supposed to replace the file/folder heiarchy with something completely different. This will pretty much obliterate most of the shell API. I can deal with change, but this is more than just change...it's a completely new animal...and MS has a history of saying "to hell with the old way, we won't support it anymore" when they want people to upgrade.
.NET, 'nuff said.
Score: 0
|"WinFS will replace (or mangle) the current file system"
Umm... Actually Microsoft has said explicitly that WinFS will only be a layer on top of the current NTFS. All it will do is tag files with Meta-data to be used in a relational database. That's all. The file system will be exactly the same UNLESS you choose to take advantage of the meta-data. Then it will just be better...
Score: 0
|"Yeah, they might keep Win32 and COM for a little while, but ultimately, it will be weeded out."
Well yeah... that would sorta be... you know... progress.
Technology necessarily changes. If it doesn't, it becomes stagnant and productivity goes down the drain. There HAS to be transitions to new standards and technologies. And I think most people would agree that Microsoft does a good job of making those transitions slowly to allow people to catch up.
Score: 0
|Um, VB6 applications still run just fine, even with the .NET framework. Ugh.
Going forward making advancements and great changes to the language, older code needs to be updated IF -- and only if -- you want to access the power of the .NET framework. If you don't want the framework, you can still compile a VB6 application just fine.
Score: 0
|Learn to spell!
Score: 0
|