My problem with Microsoft is how they keep changing their branding. They’re search engines are so popular, they’ve become verbs. “Hmm. I wonder what’s a good place to eat around here. I’ll MSN Search that!” Then, pow, I’ve got to get used to a new name. “No need to give me directions, I’ll just Live your address!” “Let me Live that for you!” I’ve finally got used to Live and now I’ve got to learn to say, “Hey, could you Bing when the Revolutionary War started?”

Oh wait, wait. That’s right. I, and everyone else, have been using Google, not whatever the Microsoft Search Engine of the Month Club is offering.

I dislike the year-based naming scheme because it goes out of date quickly and underneath both year-based and name-based names, there’s a standard numerical name, e.g. XP is Windows 5.1.

The numerical name gives an instant indication of where it fits chronologically. I think it’s great that Microsoft has thrown out the nonstandard names and has gone back to the proper convention with Windows 7.

Yeah. It ticks me off that I’m working in Office 2004, Version 11.4.0 (808122). Come on! It’s 2009 Version 6.02.09 already and the newest version is Office 2008? How embarrassing is that? In 6 months I’ll really look like a loser when My office version is 6 years old!

@apex
Actually, Office 2004 on the Mac is arguably the better version. Get iWork ‘09 and tell your Windows friends to suck it!

I don’t care what it’s called, it’s still the same old Windows. I’m sure it’s great on cash registers, but I just don’t have any use for it.

Hopefully a clean install of Windows 7 won’t demonstrate the inclusion of any strings containing “Vista SP3” in the registry or binaries.  Otherwise, it’s counting on the lack of comprehension as in “This way to the egress” used by P.T. Barnum.

I think it is funny that Redmond is running scared when it comes to Apple.  They finally have a contender again and they do not like that at all…

Will this version of Windows be “System 7 Savvy?” Any of you longtime Mac users remember that question?

http://lowendmac.com/sable/06/0104.html

Will this version of Windows be “System 7 Savvy?” Any of you longtime Mac users remember that question?

. . . t’s still going to be a crappy operating system that has to run on crappy hardware from crappy PC makers of all sort. . .

  what world do you live in? I’m a LONG time Mac Geek, hell I miss Wild Eep and Moof . . . who remembers those? But really, I get sick of the blind anti-Windows rhetoric. Windows 7 by all accounts is actually very usable. As for Crappy PC hardware, you get what you pay for, and if you pay comparable prices to the upper end Macs, the PC makers have some ultra nice hardware out there that would make any Mac user envious. If you want to be a real journalist, report facts, not your opinion please!

Joelgs23, this is an opinion piece, like other “The Back Page” articles. “The Back Page is the space that Bryan Chaffin carved out for his own thoughts. He suffers from the delusion that there are folks out there who care what he has to say.”

Joelgs23, this is an opinion piece, like other “The Back Page” articles. “The Back Page is the space that Bryan Chaffin carved out for his own thoughts. He suffers from the delusion that there are folks out there who care what he has to say.”

Speaking of “My Back Pages”

Crimson flames tied through my ears
Rollin high and mighty traps
Pounced with fire on flaming roads
Using ideas as my maps
Well meet on edges, soon, said I
Proud neath heated brow.
...
Half-wracked prejudice leaped forth
Rip down all hate, I screamed
Lies that life is black and white
...
Yes, my guard stood hard when abstract threats
Too noble to neglect
Deceived me into thinking
I had something to protect
...
Ah, but I was so much older then,
I’m younger than that now.

from Bob Dylan’s My Back Pages

I still remember Microsoft’s biggest product naming gaff.  Took them a couple years to get rid of it too.  But it was very enjoyable during that time for to me to walk through Albertsons or Smiths and look at the idle checkout stations proudly proclaiming Microsoft’s Point of Sale software:

“MicroSoft - P.O.S.”

(At least they were honest about it.)

I liked WinCE. A product named after your expression during use.