What? Avalon isn’t going to give me a new UI?
There seems to be a misconception by many that installing the Avalon CTP on their systems will give them a whole new 3D User Interface.
Here is the most recent post:
I installed everything needed so how do I run it now???
Will i see new user interface in 3d or is this just for programming???
I’ve seen the same sort of question posted on the microsoft.public.windows.developer.winfx.avalon newsgroup quite a few times since I joined the newsgroup. (Maybe 3 or 4 times).
I really do wonder how many thought, “Hey, we’re getting Avalon on XP. Great, now we’ll have a brand new snazzy interface for XP, no need for Longhorn!”.
That’s wrong, yes, you’re getting the new presentation system code-named Avalon for XP. But that’s all.
Installing the Avalon CTP in no way changes your existing user interface at all. It just adds a new set of Managed APIs for developing applications which utilise the Avalon presentation system engine.
Think of it this way, developers have been given a prototype of the next generation presentation engine.
Now it is up to developers to create something that utilises it (Avalon).
It also means that Windows XP users will be able to run the applications developed that target Avalon, but it doesn’t mean that XP users will get a new user interface at all. Nothing more though.