Mike Nash, corporate vice president for Windows product management at Microsoft, revealed today in a blog post the truth about the much-speculated-over name for the sequel to Windows Vista, which was codenamed Windows 7. The name is Windows 7.
This is the first instance in which a Windows release’s final name does not differ from its codename. All previous Windows versions have had preliminary codenames like ‘Chicago’ for Windows 95, ‘Whistler’ for Windows XP or ‘Longhorn’ for Windows Vista. Windows 7 itself has also had the codenames Blackcomb and later Vienna. These names, as well as what became the final name for the new version of Windows are preliminary names by which Microsoft designate their products during the production cycle, with the final shelf name only becoming known near the time of the product’s actual release.

Windows products historically have either had version numbers, year numbers or ‘aspirational’ names (XP, Vista), yet the former naming scheme has fallen out of disuse since Windows 3.11. While Windows kernel version numbers are continuous, this number has stopped tagging the OS’ final name, until now that is.

“The decision to use the name Windows 7 is about simplicity,” Nash says in the post and justifies the use of the change in approach, arguing that “since we do not ship new versions of Windows every year, using a date did not make sense. Likewise, coming up with an all-new "aspirational" name does not do justice to what we are trying to achieve, which is to stay firmly rooted in our aspirations for Windows Vista, while evolving and refining the substantial investments in platform technology in Windows Vista into the next generation of Windows.”

Some Windows bloggers such as the fellows over at the AeroXperience blog, however, have noted that the name doesn’t make sense. They point out that Vista, not Windows 7, is the seventh release of the operating system, and pretty much the only way that the naming scheme could work is if you only count major kernel releases and you change the Windows 7’s kernel version from 6.1 to 7, otherwise you’re going to have a confused mess regarding version numbers.
Interestingly enough, in a poll posted on Ed Bott’s blog last week, which asked users what they think the final name of the new version of Windows will be, only 15% indicated Windows 7, while the majority, 44%, gave ‘None of the Above’ as an answer, indicating that they were expecting something else completely.

The upcoming PDC 2008 event is where Microsoft will unveil the first glimpse of Windows 7, as well as give out pre-beta releases of the operating system. Windows 7’s development cycle scheduled it originally for three years after Vista, thus due to come out in 2010. Its schedule has been pushed up to the second half of 2009, with media sources hinting it will be available for the Christmas season.