Longhorn's most critical tester

One of the most critical testers of Longhorn is the man in charge of its design.

Jim Allchin, who runs Microsoft's division charged with building Windows is "dog fooding" Longhorn, code name for the next release of Windows. "I've been on Longhorn for about three months now, and it was painful when I first went over to it," Allchin told Microsoft Developer Network's Channel 9. "The build-to-build upgrades didnÂ’t' work, so it was a fresh install (for every new test version). Now the build-to-build upgrades are working so it's not as painful. I like to be on stuff early, very early, so I can track it."

Allchin said Longhorn's driver model is locked, but "the rest of the bits are far from locked and most of the features are going to come later." Longhorn is expected next year. Microsoft gave developers a fresh look at Longhorn, and distributed a "developer preview" version of the software at its Windows Hardware Engineering Conference in Seattle last week.

Allchin also provided insight into his life before Microsoft. He recounted his early years as a starving musician and "having Cheerios without milk for most of the month (after) the food stamps would run out." Software development is "definitely more lucrative" he said.