Since things are a little slow right now, why don't we just go hog wild with the whole theme and take another look at something else that's darn slow-- namely, the development cycle of Microsoft's next version of Windows, code-named Longhorn? If nothing else, maybe it'll mess with those Google ads down there at the end of the episode and spawn all sorts of hilariously off-topic and poorly-targeted links to Windows products again. That's always fun.

You probably recall the "controversy" that arose last year when Microsoft's 2005 Longhorn ship date appeared to be slipping to 2006. You may also remember that Microsoft now only even expects to ship Longhorn in 2006 by leaving out a slew of features. Well, that strategy appears to have matured into something resembling a full-fledged plan, albeit not necessarily an attractive one: faithful viewer bo notes a CNET article which makes Longhorn sound like an operating system you buy in chunks over time, kinda like a living room set or something. And the final chunk, the full version of the WinFS file system that Bill Gates has reportedly called "the 'Holy Grail' of Longhorn," now isn't expected to ship until-- ready for this?-- 2009.

That's not a rumor, folks; that info comes straight from Microsoft's senior veep of Windows server development himself. Yipes. But while the entire, complete set of Longhorn features won't be available for five more years, there's an early development version already available showing some of the features that should actually make it into the 2006 edition. Even if you have zero interest in Windows (hey, like us! Should we form a special non-interest group or something?), it's at least worth taking a peek at how the operating system looks so far, because you might spot a few similarities to another OS that lives a little closer to home.

Check out the first look at Longhorn over at ExtremeTech, as pointed out to us by faithful viewer Roy H. In particular, make sure you scope out the slide show of screenshots, because while Longhorn's interface inherits the tackiness of XP's cartoon-colored icons, it's been gussied up a bit in ways that seem a little too familiar for coincidence. Note, for example, the soft alpha-channeled drop shadows cast by the rounded-edged windows. Witness the way windows can be drawn with varying degrees of translucence. And then consider Longhorn's slight 3D twist on Exposé, which stacks the windows instead of shrinking them all to fit without overlapping. ("You can actually see the contents," writes ExtremeTech. Well, um, roughly the leftmost 80 pixels' worth, anyway...)

Not that Microsoft swiping Apple's look and feel is anything new, of course (and Apple has certainly swiped a few features right back over the years), but it's still good for an eye-roll or two to see it happening through the development phase. The question is, will Tiger include any interface enhancements over Panther, and if so, will Microsoft have time to copy those, too, before Longhorn 1.0 (given the feature reduction, maybe that should be Longhorn 0.8) ships in two years' time?