At its annual developer conference in Los Angeles, Microsoft made a lot of noise about the upcoming release of Longhorn, the next re-haul of the Windows operating system. Longhorn won’t be available until 2006, assuming there are no more slips in the release date (it has already been delayed three times).

Microsoft served up another dose of rhetoric that inevitably encourages locking developers and customers into Microsoft products. As far as I can tell, Longhorn is yet another Windows wolf dressed up in sheep’s clothing.

Cutting through the marketing-speak, here’s my take on what Longhorn will mean for the companies, government agencies and educational institutions who will consider adoption…