
Microsoft’s Next OS To Be Called “Windows 7″. Seriously - jasonlbaptiste
http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/10/13/microsofts-next-version-of-windows-to-be-called-windows-7-seriously/
======
whacked_new
MS's blog post linked:
[http://windowsvistablog.com/blogs/windowsvista/archive/2008/...](http://windowsvistablog.com/blogs/windowsvista/archive/2008/10/13/introducing-
windows-7.aspx)

This did not need an entire blog post. The title's one liner sums it up fine.

~~~
dmix
That blogs design hurts my eyes. Its pure form over function.

Who decided to use white text on a nearly white background for the navigation?

~~~
icey
The same people who thought UAC was a good idea.

------
RKlophaus
I'm not the first one to say this, but I'm worried about Windows as a
platform.

The code base has now been recycled 5 times over, and they keep adding layers
to it instead of cleaning it up.

(One thing I admire about Apple. When the OS code got old and crufty, they
weren't afraid to start at the beginning and do it right.)

Windows has had to promise and deliver complete backward compatibility to
retain their market share. They've painted themselves into a corner, and at a
certain point, they are going to have to break that promise or figure out some
clever way to unchain themselves from that anchor. (I think I read something
about them trying virtualization as a possible solution.)

~~~
Zev
Apple's start-from-the-beginning effort was Copland. That turned out pretty
badly for Apple. (Which is part of the reason they abandoned it in favor of
buying NeXTSTEP (Which turned into OS X))

~~~
helveticaman
But in a way, Copland wasn't Steve Jobs, but NeX was. Apple _is_ Steve Jobs.

~~~
raganwald
By way of agreement with you, I will say there's no "but in a way" about it.
As I recall--I was a Mac developer at the time--Copland was everything Jobs is
not. A large, bureaucratic team. Infighting and feature poaching between the
Pink and Blue teams with nobody to step in and provide Adult Supervision. No
hard ship date with a command to abandon anything that wouldn't fit (real
artists ship, Copland did not ship).

Much has been made of how little Jobs contributed to the original Macintosh.
However, looking back we see what he did contribute: the all-consuming focus
on shipping a product, and the willingness to make the hard decisions needed
to do so.

This was entirely unlike the Copland effort in every which way.

<http://tinyurl.com/2lrwzd> (Wikipedia article on Copland)

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taligent> (and Taligent)

~~~
Angostura
I have to admit, as a user I rather miss OpenDoc. Cyberdog was nifty.

------
crowbar
Darn. And I had all my money on Windows EX Hyper Fighting Alpha: The New
Challengers Turbo.

------
bigthboy
Personally, I think Vista should have kept the name "Longhorn" from
development. I like the sound of "Windows 7" but I too am a bit concerned with
how Windows in itself will fare with a future that looks like Vista which was,
in my opinion, a step away from the enterprise class that Windows has always
had a firm grasp on. As someone who works in IT for a university and has
worked for other schools in the past, I found Vista showed no reasons to be
used in an enterprise setting. Vista tailored WAY too much to a home user
perspective. All pretty pictures and no power.

Windows 7, we can perhaps expect a step back in the right direction. I've seen
rumors but nothing official that suggested Windows 7 was going to be
Microsoft's first Operating system since Windows 2000 to not use the NT core?
Anyone care to confirm that?

Also... just some funnies... [http://venturebeat.com/2008/10/13/windows-7-the-
search-for-a...](http://venturebeat.com/2008/10/13/windows-7-the-search-for-a-
good-headline/)

------
greenagain
But they told me it was going to be called Mojave.

------
jrockway
_it’s probably going to confuse everyone and couldn’t be more bland_

Probably not. It is a little bland, but there is nothing all that exciting
about an OS like Windows. Its most exciting function is drawing window
decorations and showing icons on your desktop. Who cares?

~~~
breck
Agreed. I think it couldn't be less confusing. I love the name and look
forward to it coming out(still on XP, definitely going to skip Vista). I hope
it has built in version control, faster file search, and no stupid security
pop ups. Also, could we please get a better version of Paintbrush?

------
mixmax
Going by the numbers this should be a serious downgrade from windows 2000

~~~
unalone
It's a sort of reversal of how they expanded their numbers with the XBox 360,
so it wouldn't be a 2 versus the PS3.

Still, I like it. It's no-nonsense and it's got a nice ring to it.

------
brianherman
I love it!

~~~
Prrometheus
Functional. Simple. Easier to get businesses to buy 7.5 or 8.0 instead of
switching from "XP" to "Vista". I like it.

------
timcederman
3.1, NT, 95, 98, ME, XP, 2000, Vista, 7 -- just pick a scheme and stick with
it guys.

~~~
icey
You forgot about Bob

~~~
Zev
Wasn't that just a new UI, not a new OS completely?

~~~
icey
Hmmm actually, that's possible. I only remember hearing about Bob and seeing
some screenshots. I wasn't fortunate enough to have bought a copy of it.

------
jmtame
I better be impressed, or I'm sticking with XP.

~~~
cstejerean
not for long you won't, unless you're going to start writing your own security
patches and backporting apps.

~~~
jonny_noog
Or he'll have moved to a Mac by then?

Disclaimer: I don't own a Mac... Yet.

~~~
newaccountname
How would that be "sticking with XP"?

~~~
jonny_noog
It's not. The assumption - following on from cstejerean's comment - being that
once XP is no longer receiving security updates, any reasonably knowledgeable
person would feel compelled to move to something else. I know I will be.

My comment was really just a facetious one, coming from my personal point of
view, which is that Mac's are looking better and better these days.

~~~
cstejerean
Vista is a big part of why I made the switch to a Mac (for my laptop, I'm
running Linux on the desktop).

~~~
jonny_noog
I'm almost the opposite, Debian on my Laptop. XP Pro on my desktop (until my
next big hardware upgrade, anyway).

But as I'm very partial to Linux, I'm starting to think Mac might be the way
to go for my next big upgrade. I use my laptop almost purely for development
work, but my desktop I use for work/multimedia entertainment.

While I know it's certainly doable to set up a Linux machine for multimedia
capabilities, I'm somewhat attracted to the (hopefully) more "batteries
included" functionality of a Mac if say, I want to watch a movie piped out to
my TV or whatever. In cases like this, I'd prefer to just be able to click a
few buttons and make it happen rather than trawl through mailing list archives
looking for the right combination of xorg.conf directives for my particular
graphics card.

My XP box works fine for this kind of stuff already, but with a Mac, I get the
bonus of the familiar Unix-like underpinnings.

Still probably be a while before I might say goodbye to Bill, though.

~~~
cstejerean
Linux on a laptop has never worked out well for me every time I tried. Getting
an external project to work usually has issues, wireless is sometimes flakey
and battery life typically sucks. I highly recommend checking out OS X on a
laptop. I always found the Mac desktops to be too expensive for what I need
(since I already have a laptop I don't need heavy multimedia just an always-on
workhorse).

~~~
jonny_noog
> Linux on a laptop has never worked out well for me ...

Then you need to try out an IBM/Lenovo T60. :) This is what I've got (bought
it cheap second hand, it was a great buy) and it's rock solid running Debian
Lenny, everything works, and works well. ThinkPads in general are great for
Linux compatibility.

But thanks, I will definitely take your words under advisement when upgrade
time comes around.

------
schtog
Windows 7 != Midori ?

~~~
snprbob86
No, Midori is something very different...

------
trezor
_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._

I thought it was commonplace knowledge within the geek community that XP was
short for "eXPerience"?

If he is going to go on a long rant commenting on the name of different
Windows-releases, he should at least know the topic he is talking about ;)

~~~
baha_man
" _I thought it was commonplace knowledge within the geek community that XP
was short for "eXPerience"?_ "

It's news to me. I think it's still fair to say that the name "doesn't really
mean anything".

~~~
pmjordan
That makes the rant even more pointless.

------
newt0311
Seriously, why does the name matter?

