MS keeps ‘Windows 7′ Name for Next Client OS

Microsoft is sticking with the name Windows 7 when it releases the next version of its client operating system, according to Mike Nash, corporate vice president of Windows product management.The Windows client operating system will eventually lose its beta tag, but not its code-name as Microsoft opts for “simplicity” with its naming conventions, Nash said on the Vista team blog.

The release is the seventh version of Windows since its inception.

The company may be hoping it can tap into the mythical qualities of the number, which has held significance for Pythagoreans, Babylonians, Egyptians, Jews, Muslims and Christians throughout history. In mediaeval times, there were the Seven Champions. There are the famed Seven Kings of Rome and the Seven Last Words along with the Seven Sages, Seven Wise Masters, Seven Seas and Seven Natural Wonders of the World.

But, of course, there also are the seven deadly sins. Some critics may want to add an eighth after the beating Vista has taken since its release.

Microsoft plans to distribute the first pre-beta of Windows 7 later this month to attendees at its Professional Developers Conference, which begins Oct. 27 in Los Angeles.

There is still no official word when Windows 7 Beta 1 will ship, but Microsoft has said it plans general availability of the operating system around January 2010.

At the PDC, Windows 7 will be featured in 22 sessions. Those sessions will show attendees improvements in the operating system including the kernel, networking, hardware and devices, and user-interface, according to the official conference Web site.

The Windows 7 sessions will cover topics such as energy efficiency; graphics systems; building communication applications; documents and printing convergence; new APIs to find, visualize and organize; new text and graphics APIs; the operating system’s design principals; and APIs for building context-aware applications.

To date, IT has heard little about the new networking features in Windows 7.

Microsoft did say it plans to tweak in Windows 7 the User Account Control features that have been criticized in Vista.

Nash said “aspirational” monikers such as Windows XP or Windows Vista did not seem to 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.” (story Link)