Longhorn Command Shell development on schedule

Indianapolis (IN) - A Microsoft spokesperson officially confirmed to Tom’s Hardware Guide late this afternoon that Monad - also known as the Longhorn Command Shell - has not been cancelled, and that it will be released to the public in time for the initial public distribution of Longhorn - the next edition of Windows - if not before.

Reports emerged in the press last week, stemming from a comment made by Microsoft senior vice president Bob Muglia to open the TechEd 2005 conference in Orlando. "We are changing the command line environment in Windows," stated Muglia, "using a new object-oriented command line technology, code-named ’Monad,’ that will exceed what has been delivered in Linux and Unix for many years. It will take three to five years to fully develop and deliver." These reports interpreted Muglia’s comments as meaning that Monad would not be ready for public distribution when the Longhorn client is released - a date that was anticipated last week to be in the second half of 2006.

Microsoft’s confirmation today ends speculation as to whether Monad will be omitted from Longhorn altogether, while leaving open several options. The spokesperson confirmed that Monad development is proceeding on its original schedule. There was also confirmation that Monad will make its first appearance in Exchange 12, the next generation of Microsoft’s mail server, due for release in the second half of 2006, as reported last April. However, the spokesperson declined to confirm whether Monad’s first Longhorn release would be in conjunction with the Longhorn client - which will presumably be released first - or with Longhorn Server, the replacement for Windows Server 2003, which will presumably be released after the client edition.

In an interview last week, Peter Pawlak, lead analyst with Directions on Microsoft, told us "Exchange 12 is going to be the first administrative UI, or console, built on top of [Monad]. What this means is that, all Exchange management functions are exposed through Monad commands, and then the graphical interface sits on top of that, so you have a one-to-one correspondence between the things that you do in the UI, and the things that you do with the command line, or with a script." Conceivably, a delay of Monad development would have jeopardized the Exchange 12 project, whose development is believed to be much further along.

Interestingly, the Microsoft spokesperson also declined to confirm the Longhorn release timetable, which previously stated that the client edition would be released in 2H 2006, with Longhorn Client in 1H 2007.

However, the spokesperson did confirm that Muglia’s comments were intended to refer to an emerging three- to five-year implementation timetable, which refers not only to the rollout of new Windows services but to the phase-out of old ones, such as the DOS command line. With this timetable in place, the DOS command line may be officially removed from Windows no later than 2010. The timetable also includes the phasing in of new Web services support, such as the so-called Indigo services for WSE 3.0, and the phasing out or sublimation of services which Indigo would replace or outmode, such as IIS and DCOM.

It is likely that Monad will be shipped with the Longhorn Client, but even if Microsoft exercises its option to ship it with the Server edition only, there remains a good chance that Monad would still be available online from Microsoft. The shell will also work on Windows XP and Windows 2000 operating systems, providing they have version 2.0 of the .NET Framework installed - a version currently in beta. The most recent beta of Monad - which was demonstrated to the public last Friday at TechEd - remains due for release to invited developers sometime this week.