(Computerworld) Microsoft Corp. announced today that the code name for its next operating system, Windows 7, will be the product's official name.
Mike Nash, vice president of Windows product management, said the company was sticking with the label for simplicity's sake. "Simply put, this is the seventh release of Windows, so therefore 'Windows 7' just makes sense," Nash wrote in Microsoft's Vista blog on Monday.
After noting that Microsoft has at times stuck a date on the operating system -- Windows 2000 was the latest example -- Nash said that didn't make sense this time. "We do not ship new versions of Windows every year," he said. "Likewise, coming up with an all-new 'aspirational' name [such as 'Windows XP'] does not do justice to what we are trying to achieve, which is to stay firmly rooted in our aspirations for Windows Vista, while evolving and refining the substantial investments in platform technology in Vista into the next generation of Windows."
Some Windows watchers, however, questioned Nash's claim that Windows 7 would be the seventh iteration of the operating system. The AeroXperience blog counted seven as of Windows Vista, and eight if the consumer-oriented Windows Millennium was included. However, only if kernel revisions are tallied, XP wasn't counted -- and Windows kernel was incremented to 7.0 for Windows 7 -- would that reckoning work, the blog argued.
According to the Windows timeline on Wikipedia, XP's kernel is tagged as 5.1, and Vista's as 6.0.
Microsoft's own version of its client operating system timeline ends with Windows XP, but it assumes nine editions as of Vista: Windows 3.0, NT, 95, NT Workstation, 98, Millennium, 2000, XP and Vista. By that timeline, Microsoft doesn't regard Windows 1.0, which it released in 1985, or Windows 2.0, launched in 1987, as "true" Windows.
More: http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9117098&source=NLT_AM&nlid=1
Mike Nash, vice president of Windows product management, said the company was sticking with the label for simplicity's sake. "Simply put, this is the seventh release of Windows, so therefore 'Windows 7' just makes sense," Nash wrote in Microsoft's Vista blog on Monday.
After noting that Microsoft has at times stuck a date on the operating system -- Windows 2000 was the latest example -- Nash said that didn't make sense this time. "We do not ship new versions of Windows every year," he said. "Likewise, coming up with an all-new 'aspirational' name [such as 'Windows XP'] does not do justice to what we are trying to achieve, which is to stay firmly rooted in our aspirations for Windows Vista, while evolving and refining the substantial investments in platform technology in Vista into the next generation of Windows."
Some Windows watchers, however, questioned Nash's claim that Windows 7 would be the seventh iteration of the operating system. The AeroXperience blog counted seven as of Windows Vista, and eight if the consumer-oriented Windows Millennium was included. However, only if kernel revisions are tallied, XP wasn't counted -- and Windows kernel was incremented to 7.0 for Windows 7 -- would that reckoning work, the blog argued.
According to the Windows timeline on Wikipedia, XP's kernel is tagged as 5.1, and Vista's as 6.0.
Microsoft's own version of its client operating system timeline ends with Windows XP, but it assumes nine editions as of Vista: Windows 3.0, NT, 95, NT Workstation, 98, Millennium, 2000, XP and Vista. By that timeline, Microsoft doesn't regard Windows 1.0, which it released in 1985, or Windows 2.0, launched in 1987, as "true" Windows.
More: http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9117098&source=NLT_AM&nlid=1
