Matthew Mastracci: “what use is the data on my WinFS drive if it can't interoperate with my Linux box?”
Interesting question. How should one expose the meta data in WinFS to other computer systems? Heck, start with Windows XP. That one is used by a lot more users than Linux. Then move to Mac OSX. Then Linux and other Unix's.
Serving files is one thing. But how much of the “WinFS experience” (which is quite cool) should be shared with older or non-Longhorn OS's?
>Another question: why isn't Microsoft driving these common
>schemas though a common standards body?
Another interesting question. We're members on a ton of standards bodies. But, what standards bodies are appropriate for Longhorn technologies? For which technologies? In a perfect world, what would you like to see Microsoft do?
Here's the important question: why? What is the “win-win” for investing the time and work to give these to a standards body? How will Microsoft recoup its investment? Remember, at the end of the day, Microsoft is a business and needs to see a return on investment.
Also, I'm not all that convinced that standards bodies actually do that much. Certainly not during innovation phases. Was the Apple II given to a standards body? Was the Macintosh? Was Netscape (not during the early years). Was Photoshop? Was Flight Simultor? Doom? Was Aldus Pagemaker? Why not?
How will giving technologies to a standards body help Longhorn?