Microsoft has announced that the latest version of Windows, due in the next couple of years, will be called – drumroll please – Windows 7. It’s about time Microsoft adopted a naming system that might actually make some sense to users, but I can’t wait for hordes of customers to start asking if they somehow missed Windows 1 through 6.
Windows has had one of the most ridiculous naming schemes in the history of software. First there were logical (but ugly) version numbers, like the once commonplace “Windows 3.1″. Then with the release of the overhauled Windows 95 the company adopted a naming system based on the year of release, which it continued until Windows 98.
Windows Me (perhaps the worst operating system I’ve ever used), sacrificed the scheme for a chance to be clever (it stood for “me” and the millennium at the same time!) Next up we hit Windows XP, which has served most of us reasonably well since 2001. It sounds sort of cool, it’s catchy, and we have no idea what it means. Fine.
Finally we had Windows Vista, which seemed to stick with the naming convention of “something that sounds sort of cool but didn’t really mean anything”. It had been more than five years since the release of XP, so there was little chance of confusion.
Microsoft is now in a hurry to push out its next operating system after the generally dismal response to Vista. And so we’ve come to Windows 7, which is apparently tied to the build numbers and not the actual releases. The new naming scheme lends itself well to faster, more incremental releases similar to what we’ve seen from Apple (about once every 18 months), but it’s probably going to confuse everyone and couldn’t be more bland.
You can read more at the company’s blog post here.
Well a lot of people didn’t know how to pronounce Mac OS X, either
seriously, I hate Microsoft. I was actually banned for life from Channel9, but Windows 7 is a good title. Seriously. That’s a step in the right direction.
Bill Gates is gone and it shows. Things will get better now.
Gates is gone, and replaced with Screaming Monkey Boy. yeah, that’s an improvement.
If they remove all the blotness from Vista and call it Windows 7, that fine by me.
It would be a great OS.
Excellent point Greg. It’s not like Apple is doing any better.
Windows 7 is not the pre-release name and as we’ve all learned in the past with Microsoft the name always changes at the final release. Moreover, Windows 7 is expected to be more of a feature pack than the next major release, in the sense of “Vista R2″.
Somehow, I prefer the fancier names… partly because Windows did not name its previous OS based on a numerical format
so… the sudden appearance of a Windows “7″ is a tad confusing
No,many are conffusing to understand about that OS…
Cool! We’ll be running Explorer 8 (or 9) and Mediaplayer 11 (or 12) on Windows 7… Hold me down before I stage-dive in that see of excitement!
geez, it’s “sea” not “see”
Its “Jesus” not “geez”
RESPECT MAAH AUTHORITAAAH
it “my authority” not “MAAH AUTHORITAAAH”
what’s wrong with u peeps
It’s “you people” not “u peeps”, bro.
Wow, I got the punctuation right, too! Awesome!
But now I’ve double-posted. Drat.
It’s “brother” not “bro”, you person!
Haha, jk, I just had to add to da chain.
It’s “the” no “da”, homie
It’s “not” not “no”…
Sorry I just don’t know how to correct down the word homie, so yeah.
It’s “friend”, not “homie.” Gosh.
Better than Vista still.
anything is better than vista. windows 7 though, what are some features?
Hope its better than Vista, im actually excited.
how about colors?
Seriously,how about running article on the features rather than wasting time on silly things,
You’ve completely left out windows 2000! My pick of best windows OS to date. Hm… must have been before your time!
I believe Windows 2000 was in the professional line (the same as NT), which is why I left it off. It would have only made it even more confusing…
Actually, I believe that Windows XP was sort of the merging of ME and 2000 into a single operating system, so you have to sort of give credit to the professional line. Prior to XP, there was always one OS for professionals (NT, 2000) and for home users (95, 98, ME). XP took the best of both worlds and basically became a professional desktop that allowed you to play games
From what I know, Windows 2000 is based on the NT 4 kernel, and was meant to be part of the business line (the first beta disk of Windows 2000 I got was labeled NT 5.0). I think the idea was to merge consumers onto the business kernel at Windows XP and issue a service pack for Windows 98 (I think the XP code base comes from 2000, not ME). However, Microsoft realized that XP wouldn’t be out for another 18 months and they could make a bunch of cash if they release Windows ME as a new generation of the OS instead of as a service pack.
Either way, I think it’s fair to say that Windows 2000 was part of the Windows 95 and Windows 98 naming scheme.
You guys must have forgotten to follow up on Microsoft’s history.
The first version that was widely released was Windows 3.1 (this is what Windows 7 is getting back to, the relase number system for simplicity’s sake).
Then Came NT which was developed for the professional environment as an attempt to take on a new OS in town (Linux). (These OS’s eventually moved into the server realm and are not considered part of Microsoft’s PC operating systems.
Next was Windows 95 (or 4.0 if they had kept the original naming scheme. They changed it because at the time most people had never heard of a release candidate, alpha, beta, pre-release version of software.)
Next up was Windows 98 (or 4.5) it was basically an upgrade to windows 95. Not a whole lot of features just a new name.
Then came ME AND 2000 they were different releases of the same operating system (5.0)
Followed by XP (5.5) which was built on the stability of ME and 2000. (XP was a play on the word experience because at the time microsoft thought it would be brilliant to roll out software as a service and instead of selling the software on a disk you would access it and run it over the internet as a terminal and therefore fall in love with the “microsoft experience”)
The next major release of Microsoft Software was Vista (6.0) which was a major upset for the company.
And now we have Windows 7 (7.0 for those of you who are paying attention. which brings us back to the original naming convention of release number. (now that most people understand the concept of build and release numbers.) (the higher the number the better the software [typically])
sorry to ramble just had to clear some things up
Oh my god, man, you can’t say that “Me” was the same OS as “2000″. “2000″ was based on NT technology (which was way more decent) while “Me” was a really crappy new release of the previous 98SE (opposed to the NT line). Just by using them you can tell there’s a HUGE difference.
So “2000″ was 5.0 (not Me), which was followed by XP (5.1).
I did not choose to move to vista and sticked to XP, which is serving me well. Most windows versions suffer from major software flaws and the number of inconsistencies has been growing with the releases.
Hope Vista is the triggering point that will force them to IMPROVE their software.
You forgot about Windows 2000, which would be the last year-based name for a Windows OS.
Nah. They have Windows Server 2003 too. It is like XP, but not quite, and a bit more, with a bit less here and there.
Windows server 2003, like its name suggest, is not a desktop OS, which is probably the main topic. Furthermore, it is not like XP, but rather an improvement over the Windows Server line and its predecessor Windows server 2000.
Windows 2000 was a desktop OS and is pretty much a stripped down version of its sucessor Windows XP. Xp, Vista, and the upcoming Windows OSes use the same base code as the NT/2000 line.
Alex: yeah, I know they’re from different lineages; I’m just pointing out that the use of years or version numbers as product names hasn’t stopped in 1998 as the article asserts, but is still alive and well (MS SQL 2008 anyone ?).
I think though that if you are going to use numbers, might as well stick with version numbers rather than years. MS has a knack for releasing year-named OSes towards the very end of that year, and it can’t be good for the credibility of the engineering and planning that supports it all. Best to avoid that problem altogether and not be shy about releasing a product when it is actually ready.
Louis-Eric: Agreed on that. I guess having year-named brands add more stress to product managers when they arrive at the end of the particular year. However, changing to numeric versions will probably confuse a lot of Windows users.
Perhaps they should rather use both version and brand name for their OS name, like Apple is doing with the Mac OsX line? It seems to work fine for both techies and common users.
Was this something they wished that had in 2007 but cannot make it until 2010.
Window 10 would have been a better name
I’d love to see them start using logical numbers again, but it doesn’t add up:
Windows 3.1 (”Windows 3″)
Windows 95 (4)
Windows 98 (5)
Windows ME/2000 (6)
Windows XP (7)
Windows Vista (8)
Windows 7 (9?)
I guess maybe if you call Windows 3.1 “Windows 1″ (since that was the first one that was any good), then it increments to the next version being 7. I dunno…
There was Windows NT running in parallel with Windows 95-98.
Windows 7 is basically Windows NT 7. A different line than the DOS based 3.1 – ME line. That’s why the numbering seems odd. This is the pertinent line:
NT 3.x
NT 4.x
2000/XP (Both 5.x kernel)
Vista (6.x)
Windows 7
It goes like this (kernel in parens):
Win 1.x (1.x)
Win 2.x (2.x)
Win 3.x (3.x)
Win 95a/b/c (4.0.x)
Win 98 (4.10.x)
Win ME (4.9.x)
EOL
NT 3.x (3.x)
NT 4.x (4.x)
Win2k (5.0)
Win XP (5.1)
Win2k3 (5.2)
Vista (6.0)
Mickey -
Ed Bott discusses Windows version numbers:
Why is it called Windows 7?
http://www.edbo.../weblog/?p=2161
Windows 7 should really be called Windows 6.1, according to his calculations.
Didn’t XP stand for eXPerience, as in “The Windows eXPerience”?
actually it’s an emoticon.
You forgot the “Cairo = Chi Rho” bit.
Yes. Exactly.
XP stands for “Experience”
“Seven” is the number for “perfection”. Which we can only hope means this will be the last version of Windows that will be necessary, since it will be “perfect”. :>)
Oh no it doesn’t!
mmm number for perfection? .. isn’t 3? loooool
however users don’t leave for along time windows xp loool, next winos will require a super-calculator i think .. very expensive i think
Oh yes!
And “Vista usually refers to a distant view” according to the Babylon dictionary (http://www.baby...n/vista/English).
In MS Vista’s case this means something you better watch from far away.
But there are also examples that give us hope for Windows 7 on older Hardware:
http://max.zamo...1600-tablet-pc/
The name isn’t confusing at all.
It will confuse people who don’t realize that Vista=Windows 6.
So what’s happening with Strata ? That’s news I’d like to read about.
What exactly is there to understand? There’s the version on your current computer (Windows XP for 70% of the populace) and the new version (Windows Vista). Next year, substitute 7 for Vista.
The challenge for Microsoft is how to get XP users to upgrade from something they know works to something untrusted. If 7 gets amazing reviews right out the door, Vista will be quickly upgraded and forgotten. Meanwhile XP still works fine until you upgrade your hardware, and who’s going to do that in a recession?
If they can’t look up “Windows version numbers” in oh, I don’t know, say, a “search engine”, or even “Wikipedia”, maybe they don’t deserve to know.
Or – better yet!
Couldn’t MS just slap all the version numbers on the back of the product package with the words “Windows 7″ highlighted and in bold? Is it really *that hard* to explain to their own customers what the number 7 means?
I agree. A lot of my tech-savvy but not too nerdy friends are really confused what the newest Windows is. They have no clue what Vista means. The worthless Windows Mojave ads that are always on here make it even more confusing.
Then again, MS is way better than Apple at this. Name each release after a different cat, seriously? I use a Mac all day long and I have no idea what kind of cat I’m using.
Agreed. OS X has done well in spite of its naming scheme, not because of it.
Don’t forget that Windows Me was released in the very same year that Windows 2000 was released. This was done in order to maximize the confusion of the naming convention switch from the year of release to stuff that doesn’t make any sense.
I’ve lived through every iteration of Windows and I think I am officially DONE with Windows when this computer bites the dust. I am already thinking Apple, Mac, or whatever they call themselves. LOL
Ginger
Hehe used to confuse me too.
Apple is the company, and brand the of computers.
Macintosh (Mac) is just the operating system that they all run now.
(There used to be other operating systems from apple, but since Mac came out, they have only upgraded the ‘Mac OS’ version it instead of switching names)
The reason they are used interchangeably is that, generally speaking, only Apple computers run Mac, and unless you install an OS via Boot Camp, Apple computers run only Mac.
Oh and don’t forget about Windows 98 SE…the OS so great they had to release it twice. What was wrong with Windows Whistler and Longhorn? It makes me wonder if the marketing team had a 5 second deadline to come up with the new name. Seriously, they should all be fired.
Mickey, if your list is correct, then it makes me wonder if Microsoft was influenced by Seinfeld’s George’s liking of “Seven” as a name for a kid. Hey, Jerry was in the commercials… so the connection could be there.
Seriously, number names aren’t memorable. I’m trying to come up with a couple of examples of cars using numbers (other than what I drive) and they’re not coming to me or I am not sure if I remember right. But I can point out a Corvette and a Mustang without a label on it.
Porsche 911?
That’s about the only one that’s REALLY memorable to me.
So guess this is an exception that proves your point.
Ford 500? or Five-hundred however they write it.
Audi A4,S4,..etc
BMW 3-Series, 5-series, 7 series. Old BMW 2002
Maybe they are trying to synch the Mobile and Desktop versioning
this is old news
indeed. this has been batted around for a couple months at least.
XP stands for Xeroderma Pigmentosum. I’m not sure why they named Windows after a skin disease that makes people avoid sunlight, but it is pretty ironic.
(wikipedia it if you doubt me)
It’s Mickey Mantle’s number! I think Seven is a great name!
Best news I have heard in weeks!
This is good news!!!! For John McCain!!!!
Because upgrading his PC will give him something to do in retirement?
Vista is seriously not bad at all. I looked hard to find one that came manufactured with XP but stores didn’t have them. Everyone just kept echoing how bad it was… but truth is… It’s perfectly fine. Never had issues with loading speed, it’s visually stunning, dual-boots exceptionally well with Linux (cough ubuntu cough).
It’s a shame that a such a quality OS is never going to be used by so many Windows users. Knowing what I know now, If I could go back and pick again I’d definitely pick Vista.
Are you serious?
It’s only “visually stunning” until you get tired of it. Which occurred about one month ago for me. Then it was “visually distracting” and “visually boring” – I mean green, sunshine yellow, powder blue…you can only stare at those “shiny new” colors for so long before it becomes like, “Oh for God’s sake just give me back XP.”
If W7 looks the same I will never touch it – not unless I can go back to the XP or Classic style.
Not bad at all? At my programming course we have 2 different lab rooms with computers. Nobody wants the room with windows Vista because the computers work like shit and after a year they are practically unusable. Both labs were under the exact same use conditions for the whole year. We ALL thought the XP lab was the shittier at first and now we plead for it to be available.
LOL. The name make it sound like it is already one year late.
Aw, such a pity you missed the opportunity to use the old joke of putting Windows versions together… (”what do you get?” – “CE/Me/NT” harr harr)
Naming oddities exist elsewhere too though. I’m not too thrilled about using Ubuntu because I never care which Nerdy Nipple, Heinous Hamster, Zany Zebra or Bulky Banana the silly nom du jour is…
I hated the Ubuntu names as well until I realized that at least they were in alphabetical order.
Yeah, WinCE wasn’t exactly the best product name they ever came up with.
I never noticed that before. Ouch.
Wow – that’s like the Oklahoma Thunder of software names
Everybody is forgetting that with the release of windows 7 Microsoft will not have to support it’s 3rd os, namely XP. what will happen then? How about 64 bit computing, Windows 7 64? I like it better than OS X tiger and panther though, I mean which is the latest? hard to remember.
Hard to remember the names of the OS X versions? Seriously? There’s only ever one out every 18 months or so – if you can’t remember, it’s because you’re not trying, either for lack of interest or so that you can beef up your cred with the other MS fanboys.
It’s been EIGHT years since OS X came out, and there’s only FIVE names to remember. Don’t you realize how dumb it sounds to say you can’t figure out which version is current?
Yeah, there are only five names, but they’re all big cats which confuses people. I can tell you the name of the most current one, but there’s no way any of my friends or family could.
They should’ve ordered them by what kind of cat can beat up the previous ones. Although then the early versions would’ve had to go something like Kitten, Housecat, Preadolescent Lynx, Critically Injured Lion.
“Critically Injured Lion”? Excuse me, but I cannot stop laughing.
they should go with PC as a naming convention. if they want to add 7, 8, 9…. to it, that’s fine. they just kicked off the “I’m a PC” ad campaign, it’s good, clean and simple, and they should run with it.
as for vista, i like it better than my xp.
Eh, doesn’t IBM own the rights to that trademark?
Really a strange name, Why not called Windows 2009 or windows 2008 ?
Wow, so glad I switched the whole company to mac when we moved to North America. We’re not really fan boys but enjoy how much less hassle it is.
This latest announcement doesn’t really hint for MS to get any better in terms of user friendliness and general style. And then another two years till the system comes out that they want to replace the ill received Vista with – they seem to have a lot of problems…
@ Daniel
your point is valid however most people will not remember something just by a name if it wasnt the case; then why does Apple include OSX -cat- 10.whatever why do they need to include 10.whatever if everyone can remember.
I just want to see them get to OSXI, OS11, OSX2 or whatever there calling it and drop the damn animal names whats the purpose of the animal names anyway.
Here y’go: http://arstechn...or-os-11-leaked
LoL they are going to name their OS after bears? Instead of OS 11.4, “Sloth” it should be OS 11.4, “Chicago”
Retarded
You’re also forgetting about the wonderful Windows Mojave mirage….
Mojave works for people who don’t really care about their computer.
Right above a post about “RjDj” you are criticizing MS about “windows 7″? holy friggin hell, you lost it man
windows7(different theme) === windows vista
Mac is cool.. at least they go with Tiger, Leopard etc. not like 2000, XP, Me, 7 etc. lol
Buy Windows 7: http://12tb.com.../229653/Windows
Lets face it, Windows 7 sounds way better than XP or Vista. Windows 7 for me is easier to pronounce, easier to remember and makes much more sense for an operating system.
Still being an XP user, I hope this next release is actually leaps and bounds better than Vista is.
I’m also surprised they didn’t pick a number that was higher than Apple’s “X”. How about Windows 11.
Somehow all this brought back flash backs from the 286 era when I used DOS and Ventura Publisher. But the cool thing was to generate the typefaces (one file for each size, style, etc.) to be used in a book, a task that would go on for about 24 hours…
I like the name…and obviously Microsoft does too. The best decision Microsoft has made all year.
I’m confused, wasnt this name announced a couple of months ago? or was it only rumors at the time?
perhaps this is a sign they plan to merge with the mobile platform(currently 6)
Way to be originally Microsoft, you are just falling further and further behind Apple.
Jesse W.
http://www.churchofcowherd.com
Windows OS X
I still don’t understand what they are going to do now. Forece people to leave Vista as they are doing for XP , no support , no more patches. Why do you make such a hype for an OS which came and left like a damn cold breeze !…
Maybe it will work better by Windows 9!
here is a demo of windows 7 from a few months back:
http://equedia..../microsoft-corp
Click on the coverage for the video
To many users, the impression of Vista implies software incompatibility, lack of hardware support, unimpressive (though SP1 goes some ways fixing these problems)
Since next version of consumer windows are trying to fix vista’s bad image and issues, and build extensively on Vista existing codebase,
a more appropiate name might just be Windows UnVista
…erm… Amen?
awesome! can’t wait!
Acknowledging its imperfections, i love windows… World wont be the same without it.