Interesting one this week, Microsoft officially named the new version of Windows as Windows 7. This in itself may not seem huge news, but MS has taken a number of approaches to naming its operating system over the last few years.

We've had Windows 1, 2, 3, Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows ME, Windows XP and Windows Vista. Oh and in the professional sector, Windows NT, Windows 2000 then it joined in with XP Professional and Vista etc. Interestingly though, if you look at the "home" versions of Windows, the next iteration should in theory be Windows 9, but hey here's what I think.

...

I actually quite like it, MS has taken a back to basics, simple approach. The drawback to naming in terms of years is unless you update every year, the product seems to age faster. Calling it by names, eg XP or Vista is fine, but if you look at how Apple names it's operating systems, eg OS X Leopard it makes things much clearer.

So kudos to Microsoft, this is a sensible step and surely tactical given their recent ad campaigns. What I really want to see though is how the new Windows 7 looks and operates. I was disappointed with Vista, but you can rest assured I will be signing up for the public beta as soon as it becomes available.