Microsoft Nears Avalon, Indigo Beta 1
Microsoft has rolled out an updated release of "Avalon" and "Indigo," two future Windows subsystems. The release, labeled "Beta 1 Release Candidate," adds two new Longhorn technologies that respectively manage digital identity and flesh out a system for document creation, viewing and printing.
The release candidate is a Community Technology Preview (CTP) intended for Microsoft's developers. To recap, Avalon is Longhorn's presentation system and Indigo is the future communications subsystem for Windows. Both components contain aspects of the WinFX programming model, which includes the .NET Framework.
According to Microsoft, Avalon will unify how Windows "creates, displays, manipulates documents, media, and user interfaces," allowing developers to dream up and produce richer interfaces for their applications.
The first of the two new technologies included in the Beta 1 RC is "Infocard," a digital identity management system that can be used by any Windows application. Infocard is expected to leverage WS specifications for federated identity management and will provide users with a single login to access services on the Web.
As opposed to Passport, Microsoft's previous attempt at identity management, Infocard technology does not force developers to centralize identity information on Microsoft servers and is open to multiple identity and security technologies.
The second addition to the new beta is known as "Metro." Since its unveiling at WinHEC 2005, Metro has been widely depicted as a potential PDF killer. Metro is centered on a specification for an XML-based file format dubbed "Metro Reach" that is designed to make documents readable across any computing platform. Microsoft uses XML in Metro Reach to describe document layouts and how documents should be rendered.
In the RC release, Indigo has been given the ability to run service oriented applications with the addition of new peer-to-peer technologies that are a first pass at Microsoft's vision for distributed computing. The release also bundles new speech synthesis APIs that are an important part of Microsoft's efforts to further its speech synthesis and recognition competencies.
Some of the release's more technical inclusions are tie-ins between Indigo and Microsoft's message-queuing and Component Object Model+(COM+).
The Beta 1 Release Candidate of Avalon and Indigo is available via FileForum. The first true beta of the software is expected to be released late this summer. Both technologies currently run under Windows XP and Windows Server 2003; although, they were initially designed exclusively for Longhorn.