View source for Cairo (operating system)

{{Short description|Codename for a Microsoft software project}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=September 2024}}
{{Distinguish|Microsoft Chicago}}
{{Infobox OS
| name = Microsoft Cairo
| developer = Microsoft
| working state = Historical
| RTM date = Cancelled
| kernel type = [[Hybrid kernel|Hybrid]] ([[Windows NT|NT]])
| screenshot = Microsoft-Cairo-4.0.1175.1-Logon.png
| caption = Cairo Server login screen, based on Windows NT 4.0 Server (1175.1)
}}
'''Cairo''' was the codename for a project at [[Microsoft]] from 1991 to 1996. Its charter was to build technologies for a next-generation [[operating system]] that would fulfill [[Bill Gates]]'s vision of "information at your fingertips."<ref name="FingerTips">{{cite web |url=http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/r_harvey/iayf2005.htm |title=Information At Your Fingertips, 1994 Comdex Keynote |author=Bill Gates |author-link=Bill Gates |date=1994-11-14 |access-date=2008-01-02 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071110171339/http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/r_harvey/iayf2005.htm |archive-date=2007-11-10 |url-status=dead}}</ref> Cairo never shipped, although portions of its technologies have since appeared in other products.

==Overview==
Cairo was announced at the 1991 [[Microsoft]] [[Professional Developers Conference]] by [[Jim Allchin]].<ref name="LarryCOM">{{cite web | url=https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/archive/blogs/larryosterman/so-what-exactly-is-com-anyway | title=So what exactly IS COM anyway? | author=Larry Osterman | date=2004-10-15 | work=Larry Osterman's WebLog | access-date=2023-02-02}}</ref> It was demonstrated publicly (including a demo system for all attendees to use) at the 1993 Cairo/Win95 PDC.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.infoworld.com/article/05/09/07/37OPstrategic_1.html | title=WinFS and social information management | author=Jon Udell | author-link=Jon Udell | date=2005-09-07 | work=InfoWorld | access-date=2007-01-07 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060109220546/http://www.infoworld.com/article/05/09/07/37OPstrategic_1.html | archive-date=2006-01-09 | url-status=dead }}</ref> Microsoft changed its stance on Cairo several times, sometimes calling it a product, other times referring to it as a collection of technologies.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.byte.com/art/9611/sec10/art5.htm | title=The next version of Windows NT will flex its enterprise muscle by incorporating features from "Cairo." | author=Jon Udell | author-link=Jon Udell | date=November 1996 | work=[[Byte (magazine)|Byte]] | access-date=2007-01-07 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070225034109/http://www.byte.com/art/9611/sec10/art5.htm | archive-date=2007-02-25 | url-status=dead }}</ref>

==Features==
Cairo used [[distributed computing]] concepts to make information available quickly and seamlessly across a worldwide network of computers.

The [[Windows 95]] user interface was based on the initial design work that was done on the Cairo user interface.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://prior.sigchi.org/chi96/proceedings/desbrief/Sullivan/kds_txt.htm | title=The Windows 95 User Interface: A Case Study in Usability Engineering | author=Kent Sullivan | date=April 17, 1996 | work=CHI 96 Design Briefs | access-date=2008-10-22 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181006052815/http://prior.sigchi.org/chi96/proceedings/desbrief/Sullivan/kds_txt.htm | archive-date=October 6, 2018 | url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.microsoft.com/technet/archive/win95/desk_os.mspx | title=Microsoft Windows 95: Desktop Operating System Strategy | work=Directions on Microsoft | date=January 1995 | access-date=2007-01-07}}</ref> [[DCE/RPC]] shipped in [[Windows NT 3.1]].  Content Indexing is now a part of [[Internet Information Server]] and [[Windows Desktop Search]].<ref name="LarryCOM" />

The remaining component is the [[Object-based file system|object file system]]. It was once planned to be implemented in the form of [[WinFS]] as part of [[Windows Vista]] but development was cancelled in June 2006, with some of its technologies merged into other Microsoft products such as [[Microsoft SQL Server|Microsoft SQL Server 2008]], also known under the codename "Katmai".<ref name="canned">{{ cite web | url = https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/archive/blogs/winfs/winfs-update | title = WinFS Update | author = Quentin Clark | date = June 23, 2006 | access-date = 2023-02-02 | work = What's in Store | publisher = MSDN Blogs }}</ref>

==See also==
*[[History of Microsoft Windows]]
*[[List of Microsoft codenames]]

==References==
<!--See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Footnotes for an explanation of how to generate footnotes using the <ref(erences/)> tags-->
{{Reflist|2}}
{{refbegin}}
;Notes
* {{cite web | url=https://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/1992/12/28/77313/index.htm | title=BILL GATES' NEXT CHALLENGE His aim: to lead the information revolution of the 1990s. That will land Microsoft, already the envy of its rivals, in a vast new competitive free-for-all. | author=Alan Deutschman | date=1992-12-28 | work=Fortune | access-date=2006-01-07 }}
* {{cite web | url=http://www.computerworld.com/softwaretopics/os/story/0,10801,69882,00.html
| title=The Road to Cairo | publisher=[[Computerworld]] | author=Nicholas Petreley | date=2002-04-08 | access-date=2007-01-06 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090520055122/http://www.computerworld.com/softwaretopics/os/story/0,10801,69882,00.html |archive-date=20 May 2009}}
* {{cite web | url=https://www.theregister.co.uk/2000/06/19/microsofts_cairo_reborn_as_killer/ | title=Microsoft's Cairo reborn as killer eye-candy | publisher=[[The Register]] | author=Andrew Orlowski | date=2006-06-19 | access-date=2007-01-06 }}
* {{cite web | url=http://tech-insider.org/windows/research/acrobat/930308.pdf | title=Microsoft Windows Cairo Product Planning | publisher=[[Microsoft]] | author=Microsoft| date=1993-03-08 | access-date=2007-01-06 }}

{{refend}}

{{History of Windows}}
{{Microsoft operating systems}}
{{Distributed operating systems}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cairo (Operating System)}}
[[Category:Distributed operating systems]]
[[Category:Microsoft Windows]]
[[Category:Microsoft operating systems]]
[[Category:Object-oriented operating systems]]
[[Category:Uncompleted Microsoft initiatives]]