Click here to receive your FREE subscription to Campus Technology
News
'Windows 7' No Longer a Code Name
10/16/2008
In a break with tradition, Microsoft has decided to use the code name for the next version of Windows as the official moniker.
Windows 7 will be the official name of Microsoft's next operating system, announced Mike Nash, corporate vice president of the company's Windows product management group in a blog posting late Monday
As anticipated, Nash reiterated Microsoft's plans to release what he calls a "pre-beta developer only release" to those attending the company's Professional Developers Conference and WinHEC, which will both take place in Los Angeles during the last week of October and first week of November, respectively.
In the past, prior versions of Windows had code-names such as Longhorn, for Vista, Whistler for XP and for those with long memories, Chicago for Windows 95. Nash said the decision to stick with the code-name was to simplify its message. "This is the seventh release of Windows, so therefore "Windows 7" just makes sense," he wrote. "Coming up with an all-new aspirational name does not do justice to what we are trying to achieve."
Until recently, Microsoft has been relatively tight-lipped on its plans for Windows. But at PDC, Microsoft is now planning 22 sessions focused on Windows 7 that cover topics ranging from APIs for building context-aware applications and a new shell user experience, to information on how to build touch-based apps and designing "efficient" background processes, among others.
While Microsoft has not said when it will ship Windows 7, it is believed the company is hoping to release it late next year or sometime in 2010. Microsoft appears to pushing hard on the next release of Windows as it becomes increasingly clear businesses are passing on the most recent version, Vista, opting instead to downgrade to the older Windows XP.
Indeed the number of enterprises foregoing Vista is significant, according to this month's Redmond magazine cover story . According to Forrester Research Inc., enterprise market share for client PCs showed that 87 percent use Windows XP, while 10 percent use Vista, which began shipping nearly two years ago, the report noted.
Jeffrey Schwartz is executive editor, features, for Redmond Developer News. You can contact him at jschwartz@reddevnews.com.
Cite this Site
copy text (above) for proper citation
Recommended Reading
- Tufts Grants Rights for Mileage-Increasing Transportation Technology to Electric Truck
Tufts University has optioned rights to a technology that can recharge the batteries of any hybrid electric and electric-powered vehicle while it is driven. The Tufts-developed technology could increase by 20 percent to 70 percent the miles per gallon or total driving range performance of vehicles like the Honda Civic, Ford Escape, and Toyota Prius hybrids and the Tesla Motors and Phoenix Motorcars electric vehicles.
- U Florida and Cyntellect Collaborate to Unlock Mysteries of Cancer Stem Cells
The University of Florida has entered into a research agreement with life sciences company Cyntellect. The university's Interdisciplinary Center for Biotechnology Research will work with the company to focus on a variety of research areas including the purification and analysis of cancer stem cells (CSCs), rare cells believed to be directly involved in propagating cancers.
- George Mason U Receives Grant To Deploy Intergraph Apps for Intelligence Curriculum
George Mason University (GMU) in Fairfax, VA has been awarded a grant from Intergraph to enable students enrolled in GMU's Geospatial Intelligence Graduate Certificate program to use the company's geospatial production and exploitation software as part of their core curriculum.
- Institute for Cyber Security at U Texas, San Antonio Opens Incubator
The University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA) Institute for Cyber Security (ICS) has launched a new Internet security incubator. The incubator was developed to commercialize promising technologies that address major cyber security and privacy issues. The first companies to enter the incubator are Denim Labs and SafeMashups.
- ISO/IEC Publishes Office Open XML Standard
ISO/IEC has published the Office Open XML (OOXML) file format standard, formally known as ISO/IEC 29500:2008. It describes file formats originally designed by Microsoft for its Office 2007 productivity suite, which are used in presentation, spreadsheet and word processing applications.
- Dynamics NAV 2009 ERP Coming Next Month
Microsoft exec Kirill Tatarinov Wednesday described some new features to expect in the forthcoming Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009 enterprise resource planning solution. He gave the keynote address at Microsoft's Convergence 2008 event in Copenhagen, Denmark.
