Surprise! Microsoft's WinFS beta arrives

The surprise beta release of Microsoft's WinFS file system on Monday has attracted intense scrutiny. WinFS was one of the three pillars of Microsoft's next-generation version of Windows announced two years ago, then code-named Longhorn and now morphed and downsized into Vista. All three pillars -- WinFS, the Avalon GUI, and the Indigo Web-services protocol stack -- have been detached from any specific forthcoming release of Windows and will be offered as separate technologies. Microsoft developers were happy to discover that the WinFS beta really does install on Windows XP and includes an array of supporting development tools.

Running on top of, rather than replacing, the Windows NTFS (NT File System), WinFS enables developers to exploit XML interfaces to data previously locked up in desktop applications. This promises users a much more effective means of searching and organizing information. Essentially, it augments the traditional hierarchical file system with an object/relational/XML database of items classified by type.

Michael Herman, president and CTO of collaboration solution provider Parallelspace said that among the most potentially useful tools is Microsoft Rave, an application built over WinFS and WinFS Synchronization. Developers can invite others to synchronize with their folders. Synchronization occurs automatically as data changes.

The beta release of WinFS is a small milestone in a grand experiment on the part of Microsoft: detaching desktop data from its rigid hierarchy and enabling users to create new, more intuitive information relationships. Now that the code has arrived, developers can start prototyping applications for themselves and get a feel for what the new era will bring.

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