Public preview of Avalon available
According to this article on znet;
Microsoft previews Avalon graphics engine
Link,
"Microsoft on Friday offered a public preview of Avalon, its all-new graphics and presentation engine for Windows."
"Avalon was originally a key pillar of Longhorn--the next version of Windows--but the company decided last year to also make it available as an add-on to Windows XP and Windows Server 2003."
It sounds very interesting.
Warning(!), the article also says;
"The company recommended that it not be used even on a primary development computer, with bugs likely and a good chance users would eventually have to reinstall their operating system once they were done with the Avalon preview."
Which translates to "Don't try this at home kids!"
I also note that they say "a good chance users would eventually have to reinstall their operating system". A "good chance"? I take it they meant "big risk".
Ahh well, I guess we all have to wait one more year until it is safe enough
for regular "users". But, for those who happen to have a spare machine(with
a good graphic card) to use as a test box the following url could
be used for some weekend tinkering:
Public November 2004 "Avalon" Community Technology Preview Including WinFX™ SDK
Link