Windows 7 is the seventh version of Windows, or so Microsoft claims to explain
the name. Mike Nash writes Simply put, this is the seventh release of Windows, so therefore "Windows 7"
just makes sense.
.
Nash can write all he wants, but even repeating it a million times still does not make it true.
You have to wonder what state Microsoft is in when its Corporate Vice President, Windows Product Management does not even know how many versions of Windows there have been so far. We could forgive drawing any line from Windows version 1.0 to Windows Vista and ignoring all the variants and versions not on that line, but even when you do that, it is more than six major releases already.
The most straightforward line would be Windows 1.0, Windows 2.0, Window 3.0, Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows ME or Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Vista. That is eight versions already, and completely ignores the fact that both Windows 2.1 and Windows 3.1 were, despite their version number, quite major releases. So that really is ten major releases already, and that makes the next version Windows 11.
It is easy to find out the version number Windows really has. Just open a command window, and type the VER command. If you’ve never done that before, you may be surprised to learn that Windows 2000 is version 5.0, and Windows XP, marketed as a major new version, not a minor upgrade, is version 5.1. There are somewhat convoluted reasons for that, having to do with errors in the way some programs check version numbers, but it remains strange.
Windows 7 is the planned successor to Windows 2000 (version 5.0), Windows XP (version 5.1) and Windows Vista (version 6.0). You might expect Windows 7’s version number to be 7.0, and it really should be with a name like that, but Microsoft has decided that it will be 6.1.
So, going by version numbers, it will be Windows 6.1, and that fits in with Microsoft’s story of this new version as an improved version of Vista. Windows 7 (6.1) is an improved Vista (6.0), just like Windows XP (5.1) is an improved Windows 2000 (5.0) and Windows 98 (4.1) is an improved Windows 95 (4.0).
If you think of Window 98 as what Windows 95 should have been, of Windows XP as what Windows 2000 should have been, and of Windows 7 as what Vista should have been, the x.1 version numbers make perfect sense. Microsoft is not likely to use that same expression, but its message still is that the next version of Windows will be what Vista should have been. The chosen version number and Windows’s version numbering history fit that message.
The one thing that does not fit that version and message is the actual name: Windows 7, not Windows 6.1. If you think that is confusing, consider that it will probably be followed by Windows 8, which will have version number 6.2, or perhaps 7.0.
Just imagine the tech support phone calls:
customer (a bit weary from a dozen minutes of muzak): I tried to boot, but
Windows does not work.
support (going through the scripted motions): which version of Windows do you
have?
customer (obligingly): Windows version 7.
support (repeating because the script demands it): Which version? Do you mean version 6.1 or
Windows 8?
customer (befuddled): Six? Eight? I said seven.
support (trained to bear with this): Yes, but do you mean version 6.1 or Windows
8?
customer (somewhat upset that support is not listening): I said 7!
support (trying hard not to curse Steve Ballmer): Is that the product name
or the version number?
customer (angry now): It is seven!
support (softly cursing Ballmer): Do you mean Windows 7 with version number 6.1
or Windows 8 with version number 7.0?
customer (completely confused): What?!
I’d like to see the internal memo titled "Windows version 7 clarification" Microsoft will have to distribute to all of tech support, and the training material on the subject, all just because some microtroid thought slapping a Windows 7 label on Windows version 6.1 is a really smart idea.
Perhaps Microsoft will have a last-minute attack of sanity and call it Windows 2010. Or, if it slips into late 2010, call it Windows 2011 - which can conveniently be abbreviated to Windows 11, in recognition of the ten major versions of Windows that went before it.
For now, Microsoft is calling it Windows 7.
Copyright © Tamura Jones. All Rights reserved.