Cairo (operating system)
{{Short description|Codename for a Microsoft software project}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=September 2024}}
{{Distinguish|Microsoft Chicago}}
{{Infobox OS
| name = Microsoft Cairo
| developer = Microsoft
| working state = Historical
| RTM date = Cancelled
| screenshot = Microsoft-Cairo-4.0.1175.1-Logon.png
| caption = Cairo Server login screen, based on Windows NT 4.0 Server (1175.1)
}}
Cairo was the codename for a project at Microsoft from 1991 to 1996. Its charter was to build technologies for a next-generation operating system that would fulfill Bill Gates's vision of "information at your fingertips."{{cite web |url=http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/r_harvey/iayf2005.htm |title=Information At Your Fingertips, 1994 Comdex Keynote |author=Bill Gates |author-link=Bill Gates |date=1994-11-14 |access-date=2008-01-02 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071110171339/http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/r_harvey/iayf2005.htm |archive-date=2007-11-10 |url-status=dead}} Cairo never shipped, although portions of its technologies have since appeared in other products.
Overview
Cairo was announced at the 1991 Microsoft Professional Developers Conference by Jim Allchin.{{cite web | url=https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/archive/blogs/larryosterman/so-what-exactly-is-com-anyway | title=So what exactly IS COM anyway? | author=Larry Osterman | date=2004-10-15 | work=Larry Osterman's WebLog | access-date=2023-02-02}} It was demonstrated publicly (including a demo system for all attendees to use) at the 1993 Cairo/Win95 PDC.{{cite web | url=http://www.infoworld.com/article/05/09/07/37OPstrategic_1.html | title=WinFS and social information management | author=Jon Udell | author-link=Jon Udell | date=2005-09-07 | work=InfoWorld | access-date=2007-01-07 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060109220546/http://www.infoworld.com/article/05/09/07/37OPstrategic_1.html | archive-date=2006-01-09 | url-status=dead }} Microsoft changed its stance on Cairo several times, sometimes calling it a product, other times referring to it as a collection of technologies.{{cite web | url=http://www.byte.com/art/9611/sec10/art5.htm | title=The next version of Windows NT will flex its enterprise muscle by incorporating features from "Cairo." | author=Jon Udell | author-link=Jon Udell | date=November 1996 | work=Byte | access-date=2007-01-07 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070225034109/http://www.byte.com/art/9611/sec10/art5.htm | archive-date=2007-02-25 | url-status=dead }}
Features
Cairo used distributed computing concepts to make information available quickly and seamlessly across a worldwide network of computers.
The Windows 95 user interface was based on the initial design work that was done on the Cairo user interface.{{cite web | url=http://prior.sigchi.org/chi96/proceedings/desbrief/Sullivan/kds_txt.htm | title=The Windows 95 User Interface: A Case Study in Usability Engineering | author=Kent Sullivan | date=April 17, 1996 | work=CHI 96 Design Briefs | access-date=2008-10-22 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181006052815/http://prior.sigchi.org/chi96/proceedings/desbrief/Sullivan/kds_txt.htm | archive-date=October 6, 2018 | url-status=dead }}{{cite web | url=http://www.microsoft.com/technet/archive/win95/desk_os.mspx | title=Microsoft Windows 95: Desktop Operating System Strategy | work=Directions on Microsoft | date=January 1995 | access-date=2007-01-07}} DCE/RPC shipped in Windows NT 3.1. Content Indexing is now a part of Internet Information Server and Windows Desktop Search.
The remaining component is the object file system. It was once planned to be implemented in the form of WinFS as part of Windows Vista but development was cancelled in June 2006, with some of its technologies merged into other Microsoft products such as Microsoft SQL Server 2008, also known under the codename "Katmai".{{ cite web | url = https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/archive/blogs/winfs/winfs-update | title = WinFS Update | author = Quentin Clark | date = June 23, 2006 | access-date = 2023-02-02 | work = What's in Store | publisher = MSDN Blogs }}
See also
References
{{Reflist|2}}
{{refbegin}}
;Notes
- {{cite web | url=https://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/1992/12/28/77313/index.htm | title=BILL GATES' NEXT CHALLENGE His aim: to lead the information revolution of the 1990s. That will land Microsoft, already the envy of its rivals, in a vast new competitive free-for-all. | author=Alan Deutschman | date=1992-12-28 | work=Fortune | access-date=2006-01-07 }}
- {{cite web | url=http://www.computerworld.com/softwaretopics/os/story/0,10801,69882,00.html
| title=The Road to Cairo | publisher=Computerworld | author=Nicholas Petreley | date=2002-04-08 | access-date=2007-01-06 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090520055122/http://www.computerworld.com/softwaretopics/os/story/0,10801,69882,00.html |archive-date=20 May 2009}}
- {{cite web | url=https://www.theregister.co.uk/2000/06/19/microsofts_cairo_reborn_as_killer/ | title=Microsoft's Cairo reborn as killer eye-candy | publisher=The Register | author=Andrew Orlowski | date=2006-06-19 | access-date=2007-01-06 }}
- {{cite web | url=http://tech-insider.org/windows/research/acrobat/930308.pdf | title=Microsoft Windows Cairo Product Planning | publisher=Microsoft | author=Microsoft| date=1993-03-08 | access-date=2007-01-06 }}
{{refend}}
{{History of Windows}}
{{Microsoft operating systems}}
{{Distributed operating systems}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cairo (Operating System)}}
Category:Distributed operating systems
Category:Microsoft operating systems