Exec explains how he got to seven, reveals Windows 7's real number is 6.1


(Computerworld) After users disputed his count, a Microsoft Corp. executive explained yesterday how the company concluded that the upcoming Windows 7 is the seventh version of the operating system.

Yesterday, Mike Nash, vice president of Windows product management, followed up a Monday announcement that Microsoft had settled on Windows 7 by defending his tally.

"There's been a lot of lively discussion since I confirmed yesterday that the official name for the next version of the Window client operating system will be 'Windows 7' about how we got to the number '7'," said Nash in an entry to the Windows Vista blog. "I'll say upfront that there are many ways to count the releases of Windows, and it's been both a trip down memory lane and quite amusing to read all the different theories about how we got to the number."

In fact, others had wondered that same thing. On Monday, bloggers as well as users commenting on Nash's announcement arrived at different numbers when ticking off each edition of Windows. The AeroXperience blog, for example, counted seven as of Windows Vista, eight if the consumer-oriented Windows Millennium was included. Also on Monday, Windows blogger Ed Bott came up with seven for Windows 7 by counting only members of the NT family, starting with Windows NT 3.1. "If you try to count using the consumer versions from the Windows 9X family, or the barely usable Windows 1 and 2 releases, you'll quickly go mad," Bott noted.


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