With the announcement of Longhorn's official name, Microsoft has left many users asking: why Windows Vista? Company representatives told BetaNews that Microsoft felt the new version of Windows "deserved a name that was more representative of what it specifically brings to customers."
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At least its not Mandriva 
Vista is an actual word with meaning http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=vista
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I'm sorry, but Vista is IMO a worse name than Mandriva. The fact that it's an actual word is irrelevant: look at a brand like "Pepsi". It's not a real word, and yet it's become a powerful, easy to recognize brand.
Windows Vista doesn't roll off the tongue well, it doesn't sound cool, it doesn't describe the product and there are already quite a few other products that use the name. On all counts, it's a very bad name from a marketing point of view.
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All the ripped-out features? You mean WinFS which simply won't ship with Longhorn? Yeah, damn that one ripped out feature.
Nevermind all these http://weakmind.org/upload/files/LonghornFeatures.html
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I think the name is horrible. But then again, I never liked XP (the name) also. They should just stick with Windows 200x.
Anyone else noticing the strange OS naming that is happening lately? Like Ubuntu, Unununium, Mandriva and now Vista. Who the hell can ever read Unununium, let alone pronounce it.
Member since:2005-06-29
Linux distributions have always had "creative" names; although they're getting odder now (Debian had a story, Slackware made sense at the time, RedHat had a story, but Ubuntu is just some African word).
Microsoft used to sort of have a naming scheme back with DOS and the original Windows. But then came the year scheme, and then they switched to the stupid name scheme.
I was never a fan of XP either; I thought it was the dumbest name I'd ever heard. I didn't want to eXPerience my computer, I wanted my computer to experience what I told it to do lol. And now I don't want to view my computer, I don't want to gaze into its eyes like a horny school boy. I still just want it to do what I tell it to.
I really thought it'd be cool if they'd came up with a naming scheme more like Apple has with the cats. Yea, I can never remember what the latest one is, but who cares! It's fun and exciting. Apple does cats, maybe Microsoft could do deadly insects or something (I have a strange fear of insects, so that's cool to me)?
Oh well. Vista is inoffensive in every possible way. How boring.
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but Ubuntu is just some African word
Just some African word? www.ubuntulinux.org describes the word in detail. Ubuntu - Towards humanity.
It captures in essence what they want to do, bring in software something that brings people together.
But maybe Ubuntu is just some African word, just like Liberty is some English word...
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You sir are correct.
http://geekswithblogs.net/evjen/archive/2003/11/10/490.aspx
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Survey Says: BZZZZZZZZZZZ!! wrong.
Whistler-Blackcomb is a town/ski resort in Whistler B.C.
At the foot of Whistler (the mountain) is The Longhorn Saloon.
http://www.pubclub.com/skiresorts/whistler.htm
Member since:2005-07-07
The problem with "Longhorn" is that Longhorns are a breed of cattle that are big, stinky, stupid, create copious quantities of methane, cow pies (sh*t), and we kill them and eat them for food.
Someone at Microsoft really wasn't thinking...
Well, it's not cattle, it's not good to eat, and no one has found a way to kill it so far.
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If "Vista" is suppose to be more representative of what Longhorn specifically brings to customers, I would be worried to market it that way.
Vista denotes a type of view. Translate that into their marketing scheme and you end up with a view of the features you were/eventually to have in Longhorn, but you don't actually have in Longhorn.
Ouch! Not a good marketing scheme, IMO.
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In case you hadn't noticed, there is a reason Ubuntu uses 'a strange African word'. Ubuntu founder Mark Shuttleworth is African. The reasons behind Ubuntu,both the name and the distro, are given on the top of http://ubuntulinux.org/
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If you think the name of the new win is strange, try it in latvian, where vista means chicken! Somebody wanted naming theme with deadly insects - well i wouldn't be suprised, if the next win would be called "gailis", or perhaps, "zoss".
try it yourself here - http://www.letonika.lv/dictionary/Default.aspx
and article with nice "logo"
http://www.tvnet.lv/news/popsci/hitech/index.php?id=4575238
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I can't get over the sneaking suspicion that some focus group somewhere is responsible for this, and that it's a reaction to Apple's naming scheme.
From Windows 95 on, subsequent versions of the OS had the year of release as part of the name (Win98, Win2000) until the inexplicable "Windows XP". What do the "X" or the "P" stand for? I remember someone commented that OS X* sounded "cool" because it had the big ol' "X" in it, and that Microsoft felt that they had to have an "X" in the name of the next version of Windows as well, for the cool factor, because at the time, names with "X" in them were all the rage. Look at "Generation X", ESPN's "X Games", etc. Obviously, I have no way of knowing if this is true or not, but there you are. Once people began referring to subsequent versions of OS X by the big cat internal code names, Apple cleverly marketed them by those names, and I suspect that Microsoft felt that they had to give the upcoming OS an actual name as well. "Longhorn" was actually not bad, but the jokes were coming so fast and thick because of the announced delays, that I suppose they felt they had to make a complete break from it.
By the way, can we dispense with the "hasta la vista" jokes? They're already stale.
[I'm posting as "Anonymous" instead of "Viridian" because I'm just too damned lazy to register as yet.]
*OS X is a very clever name, and I deeply admire whoever came up with it. Not only does it continue the Macintosh version scheme (System 7, System 8, System 9 etc.), by choosing the Roman numeral X, pronounced "ten", they continued with their system of nomenclature, while at the same time indicating a break with the past and paying homage to the Unix roots of the new OS. Very, very clever indeed.
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>> From Windows 95 on, subsequent versions of the OS had the year of release as part of the name (Win98, Win2000) until the inexplicable "Windows XP".
Completely forgetting Windows CE, ME and NT...
I dunno, I kinda like the name Vista... although I think they should give serious thought to perhaps dropping the Windows part of the name. Just call it "Vista"
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There is already an Operating system with VISTA in it:
MontaVista Linux
http://www.mvista.com/products/
@M$: We see you in court... money, money, money.
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I'm working on Utopios, an in-progress Linux-based OS. http://utopios.org
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2005-07-06
To use vista as a name to signify what the next version of windows will be is either extremely confident and bold or extremely stupid. Software will always have problems and looking back through microsofts history they have more than most. Even if this is a break from what we've seen before it will still disappoint, this name makes it sound Idyllic - something software has rarely if ever been. Certainly something software has never been for the average joe....i can already see this becoming a sick joke in a few years just like NT stability.
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goto http://www.vista.com/ and see MS new OS 
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There's also the pre-existing Bista operating system http://www.weldoninc.com/downloads/vmvii.bin
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Bill was relaxing at home, drinking bubbly in the bubbles, and the name all of sudden came to him:
http://www.hotspring.com/Spa_Showroom_Hot_Tub/spa_model_vista.html
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Usually MS is pretty lame, but I think getting away from the "NT 4" or "3.1" naming conventions is good. I've always hated the name "OS X 10.4.2" or similar. Personally, I think Apple should have used the NeXTSTEP name, or come up with something equally catchy. Windows Vista is a good name. Probably wont be as good an OS as OS X, but definitely a better name.
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MS was succesful in stopping Lindows for product name confusion and Lindows had to change its name to Linspire.
Monta Vista Linux, a wellknown name in real-time Linux, uses the domain name mvista.com. It will be fun, some time in the near future, with MS midway through an expensive marketing campaign for its next-gen Windows, will have to change the name due to a court case of product name confusion.
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"www.windowsvista.com could not be found. Please check the name and try again." Firefox
"The page cannot be displayed
The page you are looking for is currently unavailable. The Web site might be experiencing technical difficulties, or you may need to adjust your browser settings." Internet Explorer
Member since:2005-07-22
It is www.windowsvista.us, not www.windowsvista.com .
Right now it just redirects to http://www.microsoft.com/windowsvista/default.mspx .
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We will get used to the name, like people have got used to Windows.
All you wanted to know about Windows Vista: http://www.vistaarticles.com
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A software patent filed by Microsoft in the US has been described as 'very dangerous'...
http://news.zdnet.co.uk/business/0,39020645,39210396,00.htm
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Yeah, I know that people are kinda used to the year naming convention, but I still think that Windows Vista is a good name, specially when compared to Longhorn. I mean, Longhorn is a weird name for portuguese speakers...
Let's say that here in Brazil, whenever your wife/fianceé/girlfriend cheats on you, people automatically starts to say that you're wearing some "long horns"... I don't see a brazilian guy wanting to be associated to such name! :-)
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"We will get used to the name, like people have got used to Windows"
That's right, the mindless millions will settle for a plate full of steaming shit which is all closed source, no matter how much it stinks, they'll just learn to love the stink..
You can call a turd a jewel but in reality it's still a lump of rotting feces.
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That's right, the mindless millions will settle for a plate full of steaming shit which is all closed source, no matter how much it stinks, they'll just learn to love the stink..
I've always been curious just what an open source OS offers the average consumer over a closed source OS ?
Thinking about it and having used both I can't see a reason why the average joe should care if his OS is closed or open if the OS that is used provides the functionality that is required and is supported.
I have no desire to write my own device drivers, reprogram portions of my operating system etc. I simply want the computer to do a job.
I'm sure there are millions of others just like me.
So what does an Open Source OS provide that we are missing with a closed source OS baring we decide to become computer scientists tomorrow morning ?
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"I've always been curious just what an open source OS offers the average consumer over a closed source OS ? "
um.. nearly everything that server/desktop versions of windows can offer but free.
if you don't know. you should try a version of ubuntu, or knoppix. knoppix can be booted off the cd so you don't even have to install it.
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...they don't just call it Windows. Why bother with an additional tag name? Windows is ubiquitous. If they have to tag it, then use version numbers or the year as they have done.
I still think that they are pulling the wool over our eyes and are going to include more features in "Vista" than they are leading on... But I am probably wrong.
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So in a nutshell, they are saying they named it Vista because its an operating system. Yay Microsoft *chuckle*.
They called it Vista because people want to do things on a computer...wow. Just because companies pay monthly PC publications to showboat new products that we supposedly must have, doesn't mean we all live in a "world of more" or however they put it. Well, maybe some people but I have better things to do than consume consume consume.
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2005-07-06
