Avalon just became a whole lot more attractive!

Just noticed this press release from Microsoft stating that the core of WinFX will be made available on Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 (in addition to “Longhorn”). This means that an application using “Avalon” will run on Windows XP, Windows Server 2003 and “Longhorn”… which by 2006 would probably encompass the majority of the Windows operating systems available. Still up to two years away, but definitely means I need to start looking (and learning) what can be done with “Avalon”!

Also, in the press release was announced that the desktop version of “Longhorn” will be released in 2006 while the server version is still slated for 2007. In addition to these dates, WinFS (the new high performance file system) will not be included in the release of “Longhorn”. Instead it will be released sometime after the release of “Longhorn” and be in beta during the release.

Thanks to Mike Harsh of the Windows Forms team at Microsoft for bringing this to our attention.