Longhorn's Offical Name is Windows Vista

UnkleAsdf writes "The folks at Redmond have long pointed to the user interface of the next generation Windows release as one of its major selling points. Now, it appears Microsoft has chosen an official name for Longhorn with just that in mind. Enter: Windows Vista. Microsoft is expected to make an official announcement early Friday morning." From the article: "Microsoft has also registered domains to go along with the newly christened Windows, including windowsvista.com. The domains were registered in late March, indicating the company made the decision even before WinHEC gave developers their first taste of Longhorn in over a year."

Comments

Name confusion?

[Anonymous Coward]

Asta lavista, Alta Vista. You have fewer lawyers.

Re:Name confusion?

[Soul-Burn666]

How about Vista Windows or another?

Re:Name confusion?

[ramunas]

We Latvians are extatic about the name: Vista in latvian means hen :)))

Re:Name confusion?

[michelcultivo]

I see a lot of troubles with Brazilian Portuguese:
Vista = Wear something
Vista = Eyes
Vista = Pay with Money

Re:Name confusion?

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm sure Micro$oft was talking about the latter.

Re:Name confusion?

[Ced_Ex]

Well, Terminator is a good name for MS windows. It will surely end all your computer fun (-:

Well, I know for certain that Linux ended my computer fun.

WHERE ARE THE GAMES?!

Re:Name confusion?

[pilgrim23]

I had my money on "Windows Copeland"...

Re:Name confusion?

[rmdir -r *]

Perhaps this is difficult for you. Let me try to explain this visually:

--- <-Joke

_
/_\ <-Your Head
-|-
/\

If this OS is a vista...

[m93]

then the view thus far is crappy.

one question

[Anonymous Coward]

Does it run linux?

Chicken

[Letaals]

Windows Vista in latvian would be Windows Chicken, now that is very lucky for us latvians.. "I hate chicken!"

Re:Chicken

[haeger]

Honda did something similar in Europe. They were going to name a car Honda Fitta which would be unfortunate since "Fitta" means "Cunt" in swedish.

They managed to get a slogan too. "Small on the outside but large once you get in".
Needless to say the Honda manager in Sweden wasn't very amused when the papers called him and asked about this.

Oh, they rebranded it. Now it's called Honda Jazz.

.haeger

Re:Chicken

[Himring]

I went to a restaurant and I ordered a chicken sandwich, but I don't think the waitress heard me 'cause she asked how I'd like my eggs. So I tried answering her anyways. "INCUBATED! Then hatched, then raised, then beheaded, then plucked, then cut up, then put onto a grill, then put onto a bun. Damn, it's gonna take a while. I don't have the time. Scrambled! -Mitch Hedberg

http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Mitch_Hedberg

Rest in peace Mitch....

Re:Chicken

[div_2n]

For all sorts of poor name choices, check out:

http://www.i18nguy.com/translations.html

I am sure someone will mention the Chevy Nova legend, but that's just what it is--a legend.

Re:Chicken

[ch-chuck]

Just like Commodore and the VIC-20 in Germany - from wikipedia: "The VIC-20 was originally meant to be called Vixen, but this name was inappropriate in Germany, Commodore's second most important market, because it sounds like wichsen, the German language word for "masturbate". VIC, which was subsequently chosen, has a similar problem--it can be pronounced like ficken, the German word for ... "

You'll just have to lookup vic-20 in wiki for that. Likewise, the Japanese video game Puck-Man was changed for fear of US graffiti.

According to Dictionary.com

[jpiggot]

Vista is -- "A distant view or prospect"

Which only makes sense, because I'm sure it'll be delayed...ooooh...me thinky long time.

One of?

[PeteDotNu]

"The folks at Redmond have long pointed to the user interface of the next generation Windows release as one of its major selling points."

There seem to be a few surplus characters in that sentence. The words "one of" and that final "s" seem to have been typed by accident.

Re:One of?

[Anonymous Coward]

"Windows Eyecandy and DRM", more like - that appears to be the only thing it offers over XP.

Re:One of?

[Jondor]

Or windows "look don't touch"..

Why not just issue a theme?

[soops1966]

Instead of all this R&D why don't they release a bew theme for XP. Save a lot of messing around.

Could have new widgets that ate memory, CPU, disk space and to phone home.

Cheaper and faster than how they're doing it now.

Re:Version?

[logik3x]

5.2 = windows server 2003 Windows Vista will be 6.0

Obviously..

[joshsnow]

..they dared not name it after a year. That would have been like 3drealms naming Duke Nukem 1998 instead of Duke Nukem forever.

Re:Obviously..

[KiloByte]

Right. Instead of missing your deadlines, you can give yourself some safety space.
Like, Chessmaster 2000 was released in 1986, 3000 in 1991. The latest dated version is 9000 -- this means, they still have 7995 years until their next deadline. I believe they have a fair chance of making it.

Registration

[leonmergen]

The domains were registered in late March, indicating the company made the decision even before WinHEC gave developers their first taste of Longhorn in over a year.

And why is that, exactly? Couldn't it be that they made up many names, selected, say, 10, and registered the domain names to prevent leaking of the name and it being registered by someone else ?

Sounds like a very small price for such a big risk, so I don't see any reason why registration in March should indicate that they actually decided to go with that name at that date...

Define: Vista

[hcob$]

The view you see outside your office window while your computer switches from Blue Screen of Death to Red Screen of Death, reboots, crashes, pours water on itself, ignites and then explodes.

Oh, and then customer service asks if you have plugged in your computer.

Arnold..

[curtisk]

..can make some good scratch since it appears his political career seems to have limited duration.

{Commercial starts}IT group all a scramble, looks like a technical World War 3, motorcycle boots stomp into the frame, pan up to Arnie's mug...." Windows Vista, Baby!" holding CD at arms length. Looks of salvation on the faces of IT techs.

LOL what am I saying?

Yuck Yuck

[soma_0806]

With a name like Longhorn, they were kind of asking to be re-"branded"

Apple's new marketing strategy.

[pharwell]

This will be great for Apple's marketing division. In the new "switch" commercials, they could get Schwartzeneggar to say "Hasta la Vista, Windows!"

astalavista

[Inigo Soto]

Will this be their *cough* registration site?

Sucks to be this company...

[logik3x]

http://www.vistawindows.com.au/

Re:Sucks to be this company...

[inkdesign]

or these guys...

Whew!

[XxtraLarGe]

I was worried they were going to pull one-upsmanship on Apple and name it Windows "Liger", (which is bred for its skills in magic).

Re:Running out of ti.. names.

[Alex P Keaton in da]

I think it is appropriate-
On family trips my dad's joke was to point out any nice looking scenery and say "what a nice vista."
One time, while traveling to MA from Ohio, he pulled into a rest stop that said "scenic vista." He had a low speed accident, or crash in that rest stop, and now I associate the word vista with crash.
Wasn't one of the ugliest cars in history named the Vista? The Colt Vista, imported for Dodge?
http://www.intellichoice.com/reports/vehicleReport /vehicle_nmb/100009877/type/used

Other Rejected Names

[WombatControl]

After dumpster diving outside Redmond, I managed to come up with this list of alternate names compiled by Microsoft's marketing team:

• New Windows
• Windows Edsel
• Windows Nova (with an extra push for sales in Latin America)
• Microsoft Bob 2.0
• Windows: Ishtar Edition
• Windows: Enterprise
• Windowfalls (To be paired with a quirky yet brilliant drama/comedy on the Fox network)
• Windows Episode II: Attack of the Clones
• Windows XP 2: Electric Bugaloo

For the launch of Windows 95, Microsoft used The Rolling Stones, for Windows XP it was Jay Leno. For the launch of Windows Vista, Microsoft will use a celebrity guest that represents the future of the product: Microsoft is considering David Caruso, Shelley Long, John Travolta, or Kevin Costner...

Re:Vista?

[mhifoe]

How about WinVi?

Then the next version can be WinEmacs.

Re:Running out of ti.. names.

[bjomo]

Yeah, they already used up the good ones like Windows XP, Windows 2000, and the most fabulous of all Windows 3.1. What dolt modded the parent insightful?

New Name for Windows Explorer

[dsginter]

Vista Cruiser!

one of the things they're waiting for...

[dAzED1]

one of the things they're waiting for...is a platform. AMD is solid and at 64 bit, but Intel is MS's ol' buddy. Longhorn was already supposed to be out by now, but...Intel doesn't have a good enough 64bit platform to offer it. That's the wait.

Where's the real news?

[Aminion]

So the future Windows will be called Vista. But where is the news that really matters?

I want to know what happened to WinFS, Avalon, Indigo and all the other revolutionary tech that Long... Vista supposedly would offer. How much has been cut and how much does Vista really differ from XP? How much will Vista cost?

Somehow, Vista doesn't seem to be, as Bill Gates once said, the the most important release since Windows 95. Let's hope Vista is more than a new color scheme and fancy GUI components.

Re:Where's the real news?

[Dunbal]

Let's hope Vista is more than a new color scheme and fancy GUI components.

I am sure it will contain a whole new way for anyone to see and share your files...

Re:Where's the real news?

[Tim C]

I steadfastly REFUSE to call it vista

Why? Sure, it's not the world's greatest name, but it's no worse (to me) than say Mandriva (why, Mandrake, why?)

if I'm going to pay $30 for a digital movie, I would much rather have it on a DVD where I can play it wherever I want than a digital media file with so much DRM that I have to give my first born to get it to play on ONE computer, much less my 4 computers

I adore the irony of a person decrying an OS for supposed integration of DRM favouring DVDs with their CSS encryption, region-locking and associated law suits...

And I can just forget linux, because obviously those FSF people are too inconsiderate to give us "features" like trusted computing.

Maybe the FSF won't, but IBM are working on it.

Hey, here's an idea - how about you wait until the OS has been released and reviewed (or at least previewed from a release candidate build) before ripping it to shreds for imagined undesirable features?

They are lucky

[MarkByers]

Oh I think they will make a deal with Microsoft. If they agree to change their name, they'll probably even get a free X-Box, and maybe a couple of games.

No numbers this time?

[Dachannien]

I guess Windows 2012 just doesn't have that "ring" to it.

I know the right name:

[MtViewGuy]

Windows 64.

After all, this new version of Windows is likely going to be designed mostly to support the x86-64 CPU instruction set that AMD pioneered and Intel has begun to use, so this sets a break with the 32-bit past of previous Windows versions.

Re:Running out of ti.. names.

[cybersaga]

Windows Vista, that doesn't sound quite right. I think they're running out of names.

Since they've been using the name 'Windows' for the past 20 years, I wonder why it took you this long to figure that out.

Now for the lawsuits

[zymurgy_cat]

And in related news, Microsoft announced it was suing the following cites/towns/counties for trademark infringement:

Vista, CA
Vista, MO
Vista, FL
Vista, IA
Vista, MN
Vista, MT
Vista, NM
Vista, NV
Vista, NY

The Reason they Chose this.....

[Guy.Gregory]

Has anyone else realised that 'Vista' may not be as dumb as it initially sounds?

Windows Vista will likely be shortened to:

Windows VI

'VI' in Roman Numerals is six.

Guess what version Windows Vista will be? 6.0...

Either this is a smart marketing name, or I'm slightly paranoid...

6.0?

[Vo0k]

Remove a few more features you had announced and it will be more like 5.2.0.1-rc1

better name in light of the terrorist attacks...

[TEMM]

Windows Freedom, oh the irony.

What will Windows Vista do for me?

[SamSeaborn]

I use WinXP Home (on a P4 2.8G w 512M ram).

Things work quite well. All the apps work, I can develop with Eclipse, JBoss, and MySQL.

User switching is nice, so my wife can have her own email/office environment.

I rarely have to reboot the machine due to problems.

I don't see the value proposition in upgrading to Windows Vista? What is it supposed to give me?

Sam

6 degrees of Windows...

[sczimme]

then the view thus far is crappy.

1) Longhorn has been changed to Vista.

2) Vista means 'view'.

3) It's still a long way off - and it was called Longhorn, so we wouldn't be out of line calling it 'Long View'.

4) 'Long View' is a song by the band Green Day.

5) Green Day released an album called 'Dookie'.

6) Dookie is a slang term for feces (i.e. crap).

Hey, you're right!

Re:6 degrees of Windows...

[chjmiller]

and green day was on carson daly for the same show as Kyra Sedgwick who is married to kevin bacon. i did it!

Re:6 degrees of Windows...

[frodo from middle ea]

I have a shorted route...

Vista, in Sanskrit means crap.

Re:6 degrees of Windows...

[KH]

I didn't know Sanskrit was such a popular language. But (deliberate) ignorance is pretty saddening. I'm a Sanskritist.

First of all, "vista" actually exists in Sanskrit. Citing from Monier Williams Sanskrit-English Dictonary: vista m. (ifc. f. aa) a partic. weight of gold (= 80 Raktikaas or a Karsha of 16 Maashas, about half an ounce troy), Praayashc.

Also, some misconceptions with regard to Sanskrit:

1) Sanskrit is a South Asian language, not Southeast Asian. (Parts of Southeast Asian cultures used Sanskrit in times, such as in Cambodia, Indonesia. In that regard, Sanskrit was known among East Asian cultures via Buddhism.)

2) Sanskrit is a language, Devanagari is a script (as another poster points out). Sanskrit can be transcribed in many scripts. In fact, many many South Asian scripts were traditionally used to write down Sanskrit.

3) Another post about the word "vistara" is pretty much correct. But note that many of them are the same word declined differently. The ablative case (vistarata.h/vistaraat) and the instrumental case (vistare.na) are the most often used.

I guess the parent poster wanted to be just funny. So, the parent post should be modded accordingly.

That..doesn't make sense

[Marc2k]

Windows Vista will likely be shortened to:

Windows VI

Why...on earth would anyone shorten Windows Vista to Windows VI? Your logic is blowing my mind. ..but besides that, everyone knows that the REAL power is in Windows EMACS; heck, it's so bloated, it's almost a full operating system!

Re:Running out of ti.. names.

[khazad]

On family trips my dad's joke was to point out any nice looking scenery and say "what a nice vista."

Oh, he was a funny one.

Windows Virgin!

[laffer1]

I think Windows Virgin is a better name. We've already seen Windows XP.. aka Experienced.. this one has a new "kernel" and eye candy.. its a virgin to hack for the very first time!

Re:Vista is a rewrite from the ground up (right?),

[saider]

Windows source code

int main( int argc, char * argv[] )
{
float value;

// splashscreen("Windows 3.1");
// splashscreen("Windows 95");
// splashscreen("Windows Me");
// splashscreen("Windows 2000");
// splashscreen("Windows XP");
splashscreen("Windows Vista");
grindHarddrive();
showDestop(DISABLE_CURSOR);
wait(20000);
showDesktop(ENABLE_CURSOR);

while( rand() > 0.9 )
{
doWork();
}

bluescreen(geterror(rand());
return 0;
}

Re:better name in light of the terrorist attacks..

[anaesthetica]

Why would Microsoft want to name their OS after France?

Re:Mod me up bitches

[tsa]

Fantastic picture on this web site! Is it there yet? Nope, I still can't see it. Not even on the horizon...

Re:Mod me up bitches

[kisielk]

Heh, looks like the two people are standing on a cliff edge ready to jump.. "farewell cruel world!" ;)