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                    *          DB/C Newsletter          *
                    *           February 2006           *
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                              News and Comments

     This month's article is a very preliminary report about Windows Vista,
the next release of Microsoft Windows.  I encourage any readers of this
newsletter who have had experience with Windows Vista to share it with
other DB/C software users via the dbctalk email list.

     I will be attending the EclipseCon (www.eclipsecon.org) conference
in Santa Clara, California March 21-23.  Be sure to make contact with me
if you are also attending.  I'll be reporting about the conference in
next month's newsletter.
                                                     don.wills@dbcsoftware.com

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                   A Preliminary Overview of Windows Vista

     Microsoft recently announced that Windows Vista will be released in
five or six different versions, depending on which press release you
read.  The five versions named on the Microsoft web site are

                    Windows Vista Home Basic
                    Windows Vista Home Premium
                    Windows Vista Ultimate
                    Windows Vista Business
                    Windows Vista Enterprise

One interesting thing to note is that the way versions were organized for
Windows XP is going away.  There will no longer be versions specifically
for 64 bit processors, for the Tablet PC or for home multimedia.  Windows
Vista Ultimate will contain all of the home and business features of the
other versions of Windows Vista.

     No official release dates have been announced for the different
versions of Windows Vista, but it seems to be general knowledge that
the home versions will be released before the end of 2006 and the
business versions will follow in the first half of 2007.  No pricing
has been announced.

     Windows Vista will include a new user interface named 'Aero'.
However, it will not be included in the Home Basic version.  In
addition, the 'Glass' mode of Aero will only work on computers with
newer, high-end graphics cards.  We're not sure what effect any of this
will have on GUI screen metrics, but we at DB/C Software Company will
be finding out about such things over the next few months.

     WinFX is an important new feature of Windows Vista.  It is the
application program interface (API) for all managed (e.g. C#) programs.
It includes the Windows Presentation Foundation, the Windows Communications
Foundation as well as the rest of the .NET 2.0 API.  WinFX appears to be
a replacement for much of the Win32 API.  Interestingly, early in the
development process it was reported that WinFX would only be available
for Longhorn (the development code name for Vista).  However, Microsoft
now says the WinFX will be available for Windows XP and for Windows
2003 Server.

     WinFS is another new feature of Windows Vista.  Originally, it was
described as a replacement for the NTFS file system.  It was to be based
on a new disk format and a relational engine not unlike SQL Server.  That
plan was abandoned.  WinFS is now the name of an advanced file system API.
The search and metadata capabilities required to implement WinFS have been
tacked onto NTFS in the form of hidden index and metadata files that are
automatically created and maintained behind the scene of normal processing.
Again, we at DB/C Software Company will be finding if this has any impact on
DB/C DX or DB/C FS.

     It appears that Windows Vista will not contain the anti-virus features
that are found in the new Windows OneCare Live product.  OneCare Live
competes directly with anti-virus software products from Norton, Symantec
and others.  Anti-virus software exists because of deficiencies in operating
systems.  But instead of fixing such operating system deficiencies in Vista,
Microsoft has decided that anti-virus software is a market opportunity.
Enough said.

     All in all, Windows Vista appears not to be all that revolutionary.
Rather, it is more evolutionary which hopefully means fewer compatibility
issues.  We'll report our findings as we learn more about Windows Vista
in the coming months.


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                          DB/C DX Class Schedule

   Class:     DB/C DX Fundamentals
   Date:      June, 2006
   Location:  Woodridge, Illinois

For information, send email to admin@dbcsoftware.com.


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