Another clue to WinFS: Mazner's article on "why" it's needed. This pretty much gives it away to anyone with any imagination. Here are what the headlines will be (I predict):

1) A flat file system that contains rich, automatically populatable metadata useful for querying. This turns "my pictures" into a query onto your hard drive, and nothing is missed.

2) Strict pattern and behavior tools are in place to keep the metadata accurate. For example, a downloaded image of a spokesperson from a banner ad (Dr Phil) should not show up in my pictures. The OS knows it came from a banner ad, and flags it accordingly.

3) <not that I think this is a good idea, but> Friendly file names different from actual file names. In fact, we may never know what a file is actually called anymore in usage. Friendly file names are like long comments, a "who am i" exposed concurrent with the file itself. A business card. We will never see the actual name.

all this would be wacked if not for 4) A kickin editor that lets people correct the metadata (attributes) of a file. With most metadata being added automatically by the OS, this means that you are effectively rewriting a file's history by editing the metadata.

Oh, why keep us guessing?

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