Longhorn: If they build it, will anyone come?
Published: 01 Apr 2005 18:10 BST
The company is also planning to bring back into the Longhorn client release some elements of its program to help businesses secure their network. The "Network Access Protection" feature, which helps businesses scan and update machines before they add them to a corporate network, has been moved around on Microsoft's roadmap several times. Most recently, the software maker took the feature out of this year's Microsoft Server 2003 "R2" release, leaving the impression it would not come into Windows until a server version of Longhorn in 2007.
However, Microsoft corporate vice-president Jawad Khaki said in a Web chat last week that some elements of NAP would come in next year's Longhorn version.
"It will ship with some out-of-box capabilities to enforce policy compliance," he said. "Additionally, we are working with 40-plus partners who are industry leaders in antivirus, intrusion detection/prevention, network access devices and much more to support the NAP architecture."
Security, more broadly, is likely to be a key point of emphasis for both Microsoft's developers and its marketing pitch. The security work Microsoft did for the Windows XP Service Pack 2 upgrade shifted a good chunk of the Windows team off of Longhorn, though its efforts there have no doubt continued into Longhorn.
One thing that has changed, said Yankee Group's DiDio, is that businesses are significantly happier with Windows security now than they were a year ago. In a soon-to-be-published Yankee Group survey, Microsoft was given an average rating of 7.6 out of 10, up from ratings of well below five a year ago.
"We haven't had any major viruses or worms, knock wood, in the last few months," she said.
It is unclear whether that newfound support for Microsoft will make it easier or harder for the company to sell Longhorn as a security enhancement. On the one hand, customers are liking what they're seeing from the software giant. At the same time, they may feel more secure with the operating system they have than they might have felt a year ago.
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