Microsoft is no doubt one of the world’s biggest corporations. But, unfortunately naming versions was never its forte. One recollection of the renaming of SMS, when Microsoft renamed ‘Microsoft Systems Management Server’ to ‘Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager 2007 R2′, proves the point beyond any doubt. However, this time around Microsoft has surprised many by a simple and not-so sophisticated name of ‘Windows 7′. What is good about the name? Well, the fact that it doesn’t sound anything like ‘Windows Vista’.

Windows 7 sounds simple, effective and conveys the message. The best point is that it seems much different from the rest of the long names that have come from the Microsoft stable. Windows 7 seems fresh and unique, a point that is conveyed by the fact that it is the shortest name of any Windows consumer release.

How did they come up with the name Windows 7? Well, Windows 7 is going to be the seventh major consumer release of Windows so logically, the first thought in mostly everyone’s mind was that the name was on the basis of this factor. Windows 7 would be Microsoft’s 7th consumer release after the following six:

  1. Windows 3.1
  2. Windows 95
  3. Windows 98
  4. Windows ME
  5. Windows XP
  6. Windows Vista


However, as per Microsoft Windows Vice President Mike Nash, the name is arrived at by building numbers of the versions, excluding their compatibility:

  1. Windows 1.0
  2. Windows 2.0
  3. Windows 3.0
  4. Windows 3.1
  5. Windows 3.11
  6. Windows NT 3.1
  7. Windows NT 3.5
  8. Windows 95 (4.0)
  9. Windows 98 (4.0.1998)
  10. Windows 98SE (4.10.2222)
  11. Windows ME (4.90.3000)
  12. Windows 2000 (5.0)
  13. Windows XP (5.1)
  14. Windows Vista (6.0)
  15. Windows 7 (6.1)

As Mike Nash explained, Window 7 was not built as 7.0 in order to maximize its application compatibility with the Windows Vista applications.

He reportedly stated that, “We learned a lot about using 5.1 for XP and how that helped developers with version checking for API compatibility. We also had the lesson reinforced when we applied the version number in the Windows Vista code as Windows 6.0– that changing basic version numbers can cause application compatibility issues.
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With Windows 7 build number as 6.1, many doubts arise about the validity of this decision and fears of a mass confusion are omnipresent. However, most of these doubts are seemingly baseless, since it really would not be the first time that an operating system will have a different product version from the actual inner workings of the Operating System, which is called the kernel.

Let us take the case of the latest version of Ubuntu 8.10, which uses the Linux kernel version 2.6.27. Another example would be Apple OS X 10.5.5, which is based on the modified version of Mach 3.0 kernel.

The Windows 7 is shaping up to be a promising OS and Microsoft have seemingly for the first time got its naming procedure right. The damages that Microsoft Vista suffered at the hands of Apple through those ‘Mac vs. PC’ commercial have apparently had the right effect on Microsoft. Windows 7 seems disconnected with the damaged Vista brand and it’s not likely to be haunted by the negative preconceived notions that surrounded Vista. Unless Apple is able to trash Windows 7 in the same way as it did with Windows Vista, this version is likely repair Microsoft’s reputation in the OS field to a huge extent.