Microsoft's WinFS waves files goodbye - vnunet.com

Microsoft's WinFS waves files goodbye - vnunet.com: "Microsoft demonstrated its forthcoming WinFS file system at the Professional Developer Conference in Los Angeles, claiming that the technology will offer easier access to data.
Instead of looking for files, WinFS identifies relationships between items such as images, documents, email messages and calendar appointments, allowing the user to search for objects dispersed over several applications.
The technology could, for instance, enable a query for all email messages to and from a client whom the user is meeting today.
'I can go into one application and build a list of people and go into another application and show their messages,' Shishir Mehrotra, who is responsible for WinFS product planning, said during a session at the Microsoft developer event.
Mehrotra demonstrated an application where an estate agent could see a map of the homes for sale within a certain price range that were close to a property about which a client had inquired.
WinFS is Microsoft's next-generation file system. The company first spoke about the technology in 2003, and it was originally scheduled to be released as part of Windows Vista but has since been pulled from the operating system"