Microsofts Operating System Names ...?

ThreeDee

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Well , Win95 and 98 ..and 2000 are kinda self explanatory I suppose.. even WindowsM.E. with it's dual proposed meaning ..I guess

..but how did they come up with XP? ...and Vista? .. I suppose being that the number "7" represents completeness or perfection or looked at as a lucky number that might explain their new Windows7's name ...(or maybe it's just a fondness for the dynamic duo of Morgan Freeman and Brad Pitt ..or perhaps an affinity towards Prince..who knows)

Just wondering how they go about coming up with their OS names... :confused::)
 
XP was a play on eXPerience for some reason... as if running the OS would change your life or whatever. :D

Vista I'm not too sure about, but a quick search turned up this commentary from an interview with someone from Microsoft a few years back (sometime in 2005):

Some Microsoft lackey in the PR department said:
"Today, we live in a world of 'more' -- more information, more ways to communicate, more things to do, more opportunities -- and at the same time, more responsibilities. Increasingly, we all turn to our PCs to help us with that," a Microsoft spokesperson said. "At the end of the day, what you're after is a way to break through all the clutter to focus on what you want to focus on, what you need to do. What you're trying to get to is your own personal Vista -- whether that is trying to organize photos, or trying to find a file or trying to connect and collaborate with a number of people electronically."

Sounds a bit wonky personally... ;)

Windows 7 it seems was a return to the basics as noted in a blog entry by Mike Nash, a Microsoft VP involved with the development of Windows 7:

Mike Nash said:
The decision to use the name Windows 7 is about simplicity. Over the years, we have taken different approaches to naming Windows. We’ve used version numbers like Windows 3.11, or dates like Windows 98, or “aspirational” monikers like Windows XP or Windows Vista. And since we do not ship new versions of Windows every year, using a date did not make sense. Likewise, coming up with an all-new “aspirational” name 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 Windows Vista into the next generation of Windows.

And Ed Bott picks up the slack to take it even further:


Ed Bott said:
Update: A few people are wondering how you get to “the seventh version” and thus qualify for the Windows 7 moniker. I don’t know the answer definitively, but can easily get to that point if I count only members of the NT family with numbers attached to their names: Windows NT 3.1 (yep, that was the very first release), 3.5, 4.0, 2000, XP, Vista. That’s six, making the next release number 7. 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.

Makes perfect sense to me... :D
 
Like Joe said... XP = Experience
Vista = Nobody really knows. Joe's example is about as good as it gets...
Windows 7 = 7th version of Windows. Aside from using dates, it's about the most sensible of the names ;)
 
Windows 7 = 7th version of Windows. Aside from using dates, it's about the most sensible of the names ;)

More specifically its the 7th OS in the NT line like Joe said, not the 7th version of Windows in general. XP was NT 5.0, Vista was 6.0...
 
More specifically its the 7th OS in the NT line like Joe said, not the 7th version of Windows in general. XP was NT 5.0, Vista was 6.0...

Not really. Windows 7 is still 6.1 due to compatibility issues.

It's the 7th version/variation of Windows, like I originally said ;)
 
Not really. Windows 7 is still 6.1 due to compatibility issues.

It's the 7th version/variation of Windows, like I originally said ;)

Yes, its the 7th in the NT line, not Windows as a whole. Windows NT 3.1, Windows NT 3.5, Windows NT 4.0, 2000, XP, Vista, 7.

You'd have to start counting at 95, count both 2000 and ME as major versions, and skip all the pre-2000 NT variants for it to be the 7th version of Windows as a whole.
 
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Seems a frivolous concern. It could be called Microsoft Windows Hot Hammered Feces Edition, but if it ran well, I'd get it.
 
Yes, its the 7th in the NT line, not Windows as a whole. Windows NT 3.1, Windows NT 3.5, Windows NT 4.0, 2000, XP, Vista, 7.

:rolleyes:

This isn't fucking rocket science.

NT3.1 = Windows 3.1
NT4 = NT4
NT5 = Windows 2000
NT5.1 = XP
NT6 = Vista
NT6.1=Windows 7

That's your NT line.

Windows 7 does not get it's name from that, however.

Windows 3 = 3
Windows 4 = 95/98/98SE/ME
Windows 5 = 2000/XP
Windows 6 = Vista
Windows 7 = Windows 7
 
Windows 7 does not get it's name from that, however.

Windows 3 = 3
Windows 4 = 95/98/98SE/ME
Windows 5 = 2000/XP
Windows 6 = Vista
Windows 7 = Windows 7

Because combining 95/95/98SE/ME into one and calling 7 the "seventh version/release of Windows" makes perfect sense. :rolleyes:

NT3.1 = Windows 3.1
NT4 = NT4
NT5 = Windows 2000
NT5.1 = XP
NT6 = Vista
NT6.1=Windows 7

Just going to forget 3.5 eh?

3.5 was a major release (Major changes, introduced variations, Power PC version). NT 3.1, NT 3.5, NT 4.0, 2000, XP, Vista, and 7. Its literally the 7th release in the NT line. Simple as that. Its not fucking rocket science, after all. :rolleyes:

Microsoft has said that this is the seventh major release, the only way to interpret that logically/without combining or dropping versions is to say its the 7th major NT release.

Seems a frivolous concern.
It is. We're just arguing for the fun of it (or at least I am). ;)
 
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There's no naming convention - it's just what the marketing guys come up with. The further separated from the actual internal release number, the better - it's just easier to sell somebody "Windows Toboggan" as an upgrade from "Windows Rhubarb" than it is to sell them an upgrade from "Windows 6.0" to "Windows 6.1".
 
Because combining 95/95/98SE/ME into one and calling 7 the "seventh version/release of Windows" makes perfect sense. :rolleyes:
It's all NT 4, so yes, it makes perfect sense.


Just going to forget 3.5 eh?

3.5 was a major release (Major changes, introduced variations, Power PC version). NT 3.1, NT 3.5, NT 4.0, 2000, XP, Vista, and 7. Its literally the 7th release in the NT line. Simple as that. Its not fucking rocket science, after all. :rolleyes:

Whatever. NT Kernel version is still 6.1, no matter what way you hash it, ain't no amount of bitching or moaning is going to change that. Perhaps you should have worded your original statement differently, instead of having to backpedal right now.

Perhaps you also need a lesson in product versioning. In the whole fucking software world, major versions are denoted by new version numbers. (IE, 5.0 to 6.0). Minor revisions are subsets of that (5.1 to 5.2). You can argue all the fuck you want but the fact of the matter is Windows 7 is NOT the seventh NT kernel version.
 
It's all NT 4, so yes, it makes perfect sense.
Uh, no they're not. 95-ME were hybrid 16-32 Bit OS's based on MS-DOS. NT was a totally separate development path. The old MS-DOS development path was killed off after ME.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_nt


Whatever. NT Kernel version is still 6.1, no matter what way you hash it, ain't no amount of bitching or moaning is going to change that. Perhaps you should have worded your original statement differently, instead of having to backpedal right now.

Perhaps you also need a lesson in product versioning. In the whole fucking software world, major versions are denoted by new version numbers. (IE, 5.0 to 6.0). Minor revisions are subsets of that (5.1 to 5.2). You can argue all the fuck you want but the fact of the matter is Windows 7 is NOT the seventh NT kernel version.

I'm not backpedaling, regardless of the version number its still the 7th release of the NT line. Its an incremental upgrade in the same sense that XP was incremental over 2000, but Microsoft is still marketing it as a major release.

Besides, I'm talking about releases in general. There are 7 OS's in the x86 NT lineage:
3.1, 3.5, 4.0, 2000, XP, Vista, 7
Whether you call them major or incremental doesn't matter. There are 7 of them.
 
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P.S. Unless you guys find out directly from Balmer or Gates, then NONE of you know exactly why it's called 7. :p
 
There's no naming convention - it's just what the marketing guys come up with. The further separated from the actual internal release number, the better - it's just easier to sell somebody "Windows Toboggan" as an upgrade from "Windows Rhubarb" than it is to sell them an upgrade from "Windows 6.0" to "Windows 6.1".

QFT...marketing can do wonders
 
The 6.1 isn't an indication that Win7 is a minor change, it's an indication that too many retarded coders write code like
Code:
OSVERSIONINFOEX osvi;
osvi.dwOSVersionInfoSize = sizeof(OSVERSIONINFOEX);
GetVersionEx ((OSVERSIONINFO *) &osvi);

if (osvi.dwMajorVersion == 6) // BAD!  BAD BAD BAD BAD BAD!!!
{
    // do Vista stuff
}
instead of
Code:
OSVERSIONINFOEX osvi;
osvi.dwOSVersionInfoSize = sizeof(OSVERSIONINFOEX);
GetVersionEx ((OSVERSIONINFO *) &osvi);

if (osvi.dwMajorVersion >= 6) // Good!  Well, decent.  
{ // It's better to check for functionality rather than version number anyway
    // do Vista stuff
}
 
The 6.1 isn't an indication that Win7 is a minor change, it's an indication that too many retarded coders write code like
I'd agree.

I would still consider Windows 7 a minor change though ;)

I'd expect Windows 8 to be another bigger jump, like we saw from XP to Vista.
 
In judeo-christian religion 7 is a number of completeness, 7 days in the week, etc etc. This is obviously the last version of windows before the apocalypse in 2012. :D
 
And the best part of it all?

The names are in some part based on a recursive acronym...

"Based on NT Technology" = "Based on New Technology Technology..." ;)

Here's a question for the audience...

What happens when Windows version/revision/what the fuck ever 10 rolls around? Will Microsoft jump on the "X-factor" bandwagon like Apple did and call it Windows X? I wonder... I wonder...
 
And the best part of it all?

The names are in some part based on a recursive acronym...

"Based on NT Technology" = "Based on New Technology Technology..." ;)

Here's a question for the audience...

What happens when Windows version/revision/what the fuck ever 10 rolls around? Will Microsoft jump on the "X-factor" bandwagon like Apple did and call it Windows X? I wonder... I wonder...
If they are really cool ...they'll call it ...

wait for it ...


"Weapon X"
 
What happens when Windows version/revision/what the fuck ever 10 rolls around? Will Microsoft jump on the "X-factor" bandwagon like Apple did and call it Windows X? I wonder... I wonder...

Windows X, now with less P!

Yeah, "7" is a completely arbitrary cop-out. The fact that the server version is going to be the underwhelmingly-named "Windows Server 2008 R2" shows that this really is just a point upgrade. All of the 'starting from scratch' crap was abandoned a year or so ago.

It's as much 6.1 (Vista + 0.1) as Server 2003 was "XP + 0.1" (which was rightfully so.)

If they had given it a major version of "7.0", I would have complained a little about the fact that it wasn't as big an upgrade as that; but at least then the name would be somewhat justified.

So, for those too lazy to pay attention, if you count "major versions", separating the DOS and NT lines:
1.0, 2.x, DOS/3.x, DOS/4.x (95-Me), NT3.x, NT4.x, NT5.x (2000-Server'03/XP64), NT6.x (Vista-Server'08-7) By *THAT* counting, Vista/Server 2008 were the eighth kernel. So one could argue that "Windows 7" is even a little late to the accounting.

If you count only the NT line, we're still on the fourth kernel family. If you count every sub-version, you are also on the eighth. (3.1, 3.5, 4.0, 5.0(2000), 5.1(XP), 5.2(Server'03/XP64), 6.0(Vista/Server'08), 6.1)
 
If you count only the NT line, we're still on the fourth kernel family. If you count every sub-version, you are also on the eighth. (3.1, 3.5, 4.0, 5.0(2000), 5.1(XP), 5.2(Server'03/XP64), 6.0(Vista/Server'08), 6.1)


I don't count 5.2 for two reasons.
-Server releases, while based on NT, are a separate development track. When we're talking about 7 we're talking about the the 7th release in the consumer/business desktop OS line.
-Neither version of 64-Bit XP (there was a version for itianium CPUs and a version for x86 compatible CPUs) was marketed as a major release or saw widespread use compared to the major releases. They did a similar split with NT 3.5, creating a totally new 3.51 for PowerPC CPUs.

Edit: Visualization with my l33t Notepad skills. Desktop releases on the top row and Server releases on the bottom row:
20074643.png


Counting the major desktop releases Windows 7 is the 7th version.
 
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I heard that they rolled 2 dice & added the numbers up, hence Windows 7











Sounds just as logical as anything else.
 
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