Tales from a Trading Desk

Longhorn. Is it totally lost?

Maybe its me, but almost every month Longhorn appears to loose features (either by backporting the same feature or dropping them completely) - MSH ("Monad") appears to be the latest. Indigo and Avalon are already available as pre-release software on Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 (hence why do I need Longhorn). WinFS has already been culled from Longhorn.  What exactly do I get now in Longhorn over and above Windows XP/Windows Server 2003?  Yeh, I know I kinda might get:

• A lot of new security features 
• Aero if I'm a desktop user (probably irrelevant for servers)
• I won't get .NET 3.0. Will I get the All-Managed API?
• I will get IE 7.0 Low-Rights.
• etc

But I still seem to be short changed on Longhorn. Will we ever see Cairo?

On a different track: Jupiter Research

Update: Partial feature list for Longhorn beta 1