Adios Vista! Windows 7 On The Horizon
 

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/29/te...29soft.html?em

I missed a chance at a preview of Windows 7 when other coworkers were chosen to attend a conference of sorts at Microsoft. But from what I understand, it's little more than Vista SP2. I imagine they've thrown a couple "new features" in there as well to justify selling it as it's own OS, but it's the same OS with a host of fixes.

What I haven't heard is if they'll be releasing a SP2 (sans new features) for Vista. That would be intensely lame of them to have made all of those fixes, which would be applicable to Vista, and not make them available.

I don't own a PC that runs Vista, nor do I own a Mac, and this may be a bit off topic, but the recent Apple commercials with the buzzer over the name Vista and the allocation of Microsoft resources to marketing make me laugh. They are really brilliant.

And if you take the time to think about it some marketing guy must have pulled '7' out of his butt.

Windows/386
Windows for Workgroups 3.11
Windows 95
Windows 98
Windows ME
Windows NT
Windows XP
Windows 2000
Windows 2003
Windows Vista

Well, if you only count the ones that most consumers are familiar with:

1. Windows 95
2. Windows 98
3. indows XP
4. Windows 2000
5. Windows 2003
6. Windows Vista.

7

Don't forget there was brief period of time when there was Windows '97.
My high school library had it for a few months.

You would have to add Windows 3.11 and/or Windows ME to that list at the very least.

Clearly no one at Microsoft would want to count ME. And I consider the change from 3.11 to 95 a radical enough jump to disconnect it from the lineage. Someone who's never touched Windows 95 but has had experience with any of those later versions would be able to navigate Windows 95 fairly intuitively. Put them in front of 3.11 and they're in for a shock.

Yeah, shenanigans. Windows ME at the very least. 7 is HUH?


Still, I suppose any improvement on Vista is to be welcomed, no matter what it's called. And you can't blame them for dropping the name that finally equated Microsoft with FAIL.

There was never a Windows 97. Windows 98 was supposed to be out in 97. There may have been beta versions in 97, but those would have carried the code name "Memphis", not Windows 97.

There WAS an Office 97, that is often what causes people to think they've seen a Windows 97.