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Let's see, Microsoft is in Washington State, not far from Whistler, a popular ski location, and home of the Blackcomb ski lodge. Say, didja notice it's not far from the Yukon, which is one of Canada's northernmost provinces? While in Whistler, why not check out the Longhorn Saloon?

Maybe, if you want some privacy, you'll stay at the Avalon Inn, or tour scenic Whidbey Island.

Codenames are generally not for show, they're just names used around campus to refer to products INTERNALLY. People catch on and use them, but almost no one ever hears about them outside IT folk. Official product names used for marketing are generally reserved for final releases. Linux developers do it too. Perhaps, if you don't understand the naming scheme of "codenames," you should simply ask.

It was determined at a time when there were two major upcoming releases of Windows, Whistler and Blackcomb, named after a ski resort in BC, Canada. (WinXP is Whistler) When they planned for an interim release between these they named it Longhorn. The Longhorn bar is the half-way between the two major mountains at the resort.

Northwood... Not to mention Longhorn

These names are getting cruder and cruder...

yea, those canadians are really crude, with their crazy names like Whistler, blackcomb and Longhorn

Northwood... Not to mention Longhorn

These names are getting cruder and cruder...

yea, those canadians are really crude, with their crazy names like Whistler, blackcomb and Longhorn

Longhorn has nothing to do with Texas. It's named for a saloon at the base of Whistler Mountain (windows xp=whistler), near Microsoft's headquarters. The version after Longhorn will be named Blackcomb, another nearby mountain.

"though Whistler and Blackcomb together are normally just called "Whistler" for the resort name"

Actually, they're called Whistler-Blackcomb.

Well in 1999 when Windows 2000 finished up, the Windows management started working on a roadmap to upcoming Windows versions. Previous codenames were based on cities (Chicago, Memphis, et al.) but for the new ones, the codenames Whistler and Blackcomb were chosen. Both of these are large ski resorts north of MS-headquarters in Canada. Whistler turned out to be Windows NT 5.1 (Windows XP) released in late 2001 (guess where the ship party was at), and Blackcomb is rumored to be NT6.

The Longhorn name, incidentally, (given to the version of Windows that will release between the two) comes from the name of the bar you stop at when traveling between the two mountains...

Clever? Or just taking the metaphor too far?

Longhorn is the bar which must be crossed to get from Whistler (Windows XP) to Blackcomb (the next big release)

Whistler/Blackcomb are both in BC, Canada.

Dictionary.com
4 entries found for longhorn.

Pronunciation Key (lônghôrn, lng-)n.
1) Any of a breed of cattle with long horns, formerly bred in great numbers in the southwest United States.

2) A variety of Cheddar cheese molded into a long cylinder.

Cheese wins it for me!

Dictionary terms are so bland for codenames... Actually it's the longhorn saloon. If you visit that page you'll see another familiar codename, "Whistler" (That's Window's XP). And what's next to there? It's Blackcomb.. Blackcomb of course was originally the version after XP, but MS decided to insert a release between to the two - "Longhorn" - which is the ski lodge between the two mountains :)

Incidentally, the code names are taken from a Canadian ski resort about 4-5 hours drive north of the MS campus. So if you ever go to Whistler mountain, look out for the blackcomb resort and longhorn saloon.

Ummmm, no.

Whistler is one of the largest ski resorts in North America. It is in British Columbia, Canada a few hours north of Seattle.

The next release of Whistler will be called Blackcomb, which is the mountain directly beside Whistler.

www.whistler-blackcomb.com