Longhorn graphics engine exposed

THERE IS HUGE interest over Microsoft's next generation Windows Longhorn operating system and people are just as interested in its graphic engine. It's called Avalon and will represent the next step forward in graphic engines, the Vole believes.

Avalon consists of a display engine and a managed code framework. For the first time, Avalon will unify how Windows creates displays and manipulates documents, media and the user interface.

On its official web pages, Microsoft revealed that it's committed to shipping Avalon in 2006. When Microsoft finishes Avalon, it will be available for Windows XP, Windows Server 2005 and all future releases of Windows. It's safe to add Longhorn to this list.

Here is an interesting quote. "When delivered, "Avalon" will become Microsoft's strategic user interface (UI) technology." As we mentioned a few times before, this confirms that this is definitely going to be a huge step forward for both 2D and 3D visualization.

MSDN (Microsoft Developers Network) members had a chance to see The "Avalon" Community Technology Preview (CTP) back in November 2004 while Microsoft decided to offer it to wide public in response to numerous requests. .

The Avalon beta is here. It's a 200MB plus download so beware.

Use it at your own risk. µ