New news on WinFS.

Microsoft no longer plans to cough up its promised it-slices-it-dices-now-how-much-would-you-pay data store technology as a single deliverable, according to Quentin Clark's WinFS blog posted Friday

Wrote Clark, packaging changes " mean that we are not pursuing a separate delivery of WinFS, including the previously planned Beta 2 release. With most of our effort now working towards productizing mature aspects of the WinFS project into SQL and ADO.NET, we do not need to deliver a separate WinFS offering."

Some of the promised WinFS file system functionality will show up in the next SQL Server—aka Katmai as well as the evolving ADO.Net. ADO.Net is basically Microsoft's object library of choice for data access.

All of this just goes to show that WinFS is nothing if not in flux, as it has been since it's big public coming-out party at PDC a few year's back.

Just weeks ago at TechEd in Boston, Microsoft said beta 2 of WinFS was on track for later this year. And some WinFS bits were shown at the big show.

Quiz: Of the original Longhorn "Pillars" promised at PDC, which and how many remain intact? If you know, send mail to me at: bdarrow@cmp.com

Buffett Promises Billions To Gates Foundation

The rich get richer, but this time to help the poor.

Fortune.com had a huge scoop today. Billionaire Warren Buffett has changed his estate-planning plan and now will write some whopping big checks to his pal Bill Gates' foundation.

Writes Fortune's Carol Loomis: "Buffett has pledged to gradually give 85 percent of his Berkshire stock to five foundations. A dominant five-sixths of the [Berkshire Hathaway} shares will go to the world's largest philanthropic organization, the $30 billion Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, whose principals are close friends of Buffett's (a connection that began in 1991, when a mutual friend introduced Buffett and Bill Gates)."

One word: Wow.