I've spent a lot of time lately around I95 and I93, running around the Atlantic coast; I haven't stayed as up to date on the software development world as I would like, but I feel obligated to mention that I saw where Longhorn will lose WinFS and Avalon is getting the boot too.
I know some guys who have invested a lot of time messing around with Avalon, hoping to stay ahead of the next windows development trend (one even thinking of doing an Avalon book), but it looks like they've gotten too far ahead with this Avalon thing. Too bad for them (and probably for the rest of us, too!). This is why they call it the bleeding edge!
I guess that leaves Indigo and . . . well . . . Indigo for us to look forward to. I understand 2006 is the target delivery date for the stripped down Longhorn, but I'm not nearly as excited about it as I was a few months back. I guess expectations have come back down to earth; even Microsoft is subject to immutable laws like gravity and “quality, schedule, price; pick two”.