“The new name of Microsoft’s next-generation computer operating system — Windows Vista — may not have the vibe of Xbox, its game console, or even that of Tiger, Apple’s operating system,” John Boudreau writes for Mercury News. “But where some see bland, the world’s largest software giant sees grand.”
MacDailyNews Take: Dictionary.com defines “vista” as: “A distant view or prospect, especially one seen through an opening… An avenue or other passage affording such a view.” So, “Windows Vista” is aptly named after a narrow passage affording a view of a distant prospect through an opening. Microsoft certainly made a decent choice with “Vista.” After all, they could’ve named the whole mess “Windows Sphincter.” “Windows Balloon Knot” might have been nice.
Boudreau continues, “On Friday, the Redmond, Wash., company officially crowned the upcoming version of its Windows operating system as ‘Vista,’ a brand it hopes conjures an image of a sweeping view into the digital world. The Windows Vista title was created after more than eight months of review by focus groups and Microsoft customers, said Greg Sullivan, group product manager for the Windows client division. The operating system is being designed to give computer users new tools to manage and access the increasing amount of e-mail, digital photos and other material stored on their PCs and networks, he said.”
MacDailyNews Take: Apple’s Mac OS X already does all of that and more. View QuickTime movies of Mac OS X Tiger features in action.
Boudreau continues, “‘It is your window into your digital information,’ Sullivan said. ‘We are doing a lot to brush away the clutter so you can really focus and create that personalized view.’
MacDailyNews Take: One question, who put the clutter there in the first place?
Boudreau continues, “Microsoft has promised that the new system will include powerful search capabilities, impressive graphics and stronger security.
MacDailyNews Take: Mac OS X already has all of that and more. View QuickTime movies of Mac OS X Tiger features in action.
Boudreau continues, “‘This marks a turning point,’ Sullivan said. ‘It demarks the point where we go from the code name to the product name.'”
MacDailyNews Take: Ooh, demarcation! Any company that holds an event (and even webcasts the spectacle, no less!) to announce the (boring) new name for their vaporware has no new ideas.
Full article here.
Related MacDailyNews articles:
Apple to unleash Leopard on Microsoft’s Windows Longhorn; Mac OS X 10.5 due late 2006 – early 2007 – June 07, 2005
PC World names Apple’s Mac OS X Tiger ‘Best Operating System’ – June 01, 2005
Apple’s Mac OS X Tiger ‘is the most advanced operating system on the planet’ – May 31, 2005
TrustedReviews: After using Mac OS X Tiger ‘going back to Windows XP is something of a joke at best’ – May 18, 2005
The Butler Group: ‘Apple’s Mac OS X Tiger the best desktop operating system in the world to date’ – May 13, 2005
BBC News: Apple’s Mac OS X Tiger ‘the most stable and reliable OS, well ahead of Windows XP’ – May 10, 2005
Windows users show strong curiosity about Apple’s Mac OS X Tiger – May 09, 2005
Windows tech writer Thurrott: ‘In many ways, Mac OS X Tiger is simply better than Windows’ – May 07, 2005
EarthWeb: Apple’s Mac OS X Tiger is a ‘serious enterprise operating system, a pivotal release’ – May 06, 2005
BusinessWeek: ‘Tiger bolsters Mac OS X’s edge as the best personal-computer operating system’ – May 06, 2005
The Guardian: Mac OS X Tiger a powerful solution while Microsoft’s Longhorn remains on drawing board – May 06, 2005
Chicago Sun-Times: Mac OS X Tiger shows ‘there’s never been a more compelling time to switch to Mac’ – May 05, 2005
Dan Gillmor: ‘With Mac OS X Tiger, Apple is plainly in the lead today’ – May 05, 2005
Jupiter Research VP: Apple’s Mac OS X Tiger ‘runs rings around Microsoft Windows’ – May 04, 2005
The Independent: Apple’s ‘faster, smarter, simpler’ Mac OS X Tiger ‘a must-have’ – May 04, 2005
Mac OS X Tiger review for a Windows PC audience finds Tiger’s ‘far, far better than Windows XP’ – May 03, 2005
Boston Herald: Mac OS X Tiger should compel Windows PC users to think about switching to Apple Mac – May 02, 2005
Mac OS X Tiger will likely improve performance of your Macintosh – April 30, 2005
PC World review gives Apple’s Mac OS X Tiger 4.5 stars out of 5 – April 30, 2005
Ars Technica: Mac OS X Tiger ‘at least twice as significant as any single past update’ – April 28, 2005
BusinessWeek: ‘Tiger bolsters Mac OS X’s edge as the best personal-computer operating system around’ – April 28, 2005
Associated Press: Mac OS X Tiger ‘provides another excellent incentive to switch from Windows’ – April 28, 2005
Mossberg: Apple’s Tiger ‘the best, most advanced personal computer operating system on the market’ – April 28, 2005
InformationWeek columnist: Apple’s Mac OS X Tiger ‘a compelling upgrade’ – April 28, 2005
NY Times: Apple’s Mac OS X Tiger is the most secure, stable and satisfying OS on earth – April 28, 2005
Wired News: Apple’s Mac OS X Tiger ‘full of welcome surprises’ – April 27, 2005
Apple posts QuickTime movies of Mac OS X Tiger features in action – April 13, 2005
Where are the graphic artists? We need an image looking out a window with a whole group of Tigers and/or Leopard’s converging on the window.
“Ooh, demarcation!“
-ROTFLMFAO!
Thanks, MDN, I needed that!
I do believe Windows ‘Vista’ is a well chosen name, as we’ll believe it when we see it.
MDN, there is no need to use dictionary.com. In case you’ve forgotten Tiger has one built in.
I personally find it funny that the word comes from the word visto meaning “seen” as in we’ve already “seen” this in Tiger, Panther etc.
Sitting here in my cube, programming on a sunny Saturday, I came across the line “‘Windows Balloon Knot’ might have been nice” and spit my Diet Coke all over my monitor and keyboard. Thanks, MDN, now I have to go find paper towels.
Wait until we wake up. After all, this announcement is enough to send anyone to sleep. Also helps if something is important enough to lampoon, lampooning a lampoon has its limitations ya know.
Mac OS X Tiger’s dictionary needs a revision to the word “vista” in the built-in dictionary. That’s probably why MDN used Dictionary.com’s instead. MDN seem to know all about Tiger’s dictionary features:
No more misused, misspelled words! Secrets to using Tiger’s new Dictionary with Safari – May 03, 2005
You’re right Bryan, Vista is a well chosen name. Longhorn has always been distant and far off into the future.
Microsoft seems to have chosen the new name wisely:
V= viruses
I= intrusions
S= spyware
T= trojans
A= adware
mw=feed as in feed us more b.s. microsoft
Longhorn was what 2 years behind schedule, so now Microsoft can say that Vista is on time & will be shipped late next year, or maybe only a few months behind schedule.
Whoa! Awesome! I’m impressed.
Gonna throw my Mac and all its paraphernalia in the dumpster and watch Batman reruns with orgasmic anticipation until MS Vista hits the streets.
MS top dogs must have gotten tired of hearing “Shorthorn” and “Longwait”.
It is all over for Apple. The fat lady is warming up and ready to sing. In 4 years since the release of Windows XP, Apple has lost market share. What hope is there now?
I wonder what the hardware requirements will be for VISTA. Way back, before they started cutting features I undderstood the requirements were quite restrictive. Anyone know?
And did you see the quality of that video?!?!?!
If that’s what WMV has to offer Hollywood, M$ might get a contract running WB re-runs!!
“Hasta la vista, windows”
http://homepage.mac.com/hogfish/PhotoAlbum2.html
“Microsoft’s Windows ‘Vista’ promises similar features to Apple’s already-shipping Mac OS X”
Ahhh…..the benefits of innovation.
Hmm…promises?. Come on, they only have to copy…unless they don’t know how to do properly
Hey, about that video, bad news bear, I did try to watch the video. I’m on a XP SP2 Media Center Edition 2005 (might have nothing to do with it but…) with Windows Media Player 10… and the video DIDN’T RUN!
only Microsoft can celebrate such mediocrity on a grand scale, @ least when we do it we actually have new products! to show.
WB is too good for them. More like UPN reruns.
It took them 8 months just to pick the name. Is it any wonder they missed their 2003 shipping date.
“Vista!”
“Bless you!”
Sound like hay fever to me.
There making a lot of hoopla yet they have no operating system yet. I thought the big grand search engine they promised was cut like all the other features they promised two years ago when they announced Longhorn. Most of the developers are calling it XP SP3 because so many features that were promised were cut out. Maybe thats what they meant by ‘We are doing a lot to brush away the clutter”.
Pissta
M/W: You heard it here first
snowy2005, Why don’t you download Quicktime for XP?
I’ve got a question for all of you to ponder:
Why was it (or, why is it) that whenever an article was (is) written about Tiger there was (is) ALWAYS a mention of M$ and Longhorn??
But now with M$ announcing their lame new OS “Vista” there is no mention at all of Mac’s superior OS??
What is up wit dat?
Have lots of Leopard previews before Longhorn comes out and get lots of attention so Leopard gets mentioned in some of the Longhorn buzz.
But don’t try to beat Longhorn out of the gate. Let Longhorn have its little splash, and THEN steal the thunder. While everyone’s still deciding whether Longhorn’s worth it or not, and fighting the first Longhorn viruses, and Leopard is nice and polished, then let it out.
The fact they’ve chosen Vista as the name implies that there is a major overhaul of the GUI coming. We already know they’ve been looking at Sun’s Looking Glass. I think we may actually see Redmond surprise us here.
BTW, for those who don’t know about Looking Glass, here’s the link.
PCs Rule “The fat lady is warming up and ready to sing.”
You must be kidding. If the new Win OS, Vista, is to change everything, why has MS spent so much resources buying and developing spyware and anitvirus software for their Win platform that they will charge customers to use.
ahhh I dunno …
If Billy Gates chooses to base this new “hasta la Vista” Operating System once more on DOS …. then, I suspect that the Evil Empire will put themselves in a downward spiral … and because of the Tiger / Leopard compitition … Redmond may not recover !
But, on the other hand …
Should Billy bite the bullet.. and base his new vaporware OS on Unix … he may be able to compete on a long term basis .. But then, this “bold” move (for him) would mean that he probably would make it impossible to keep some backward compatibility with all the XP apps… unless of course, he steals Rosetta and / or Carbon and re-works them to suit his needs !!
I mean… why not ?.. You just know, “Vista” will be nothing more than Panther … with the icons on the left !!
(just my 2 cents)
Vista is a well chosen name. It’s certainly better than Blinds (as in robbed me), or Smashed (as in it’s what I do when it’s overrun with ad-aware) and cracked (as in you’d have to be buy it).
On OS schedules (off topic, but what the hell):
Actually, I’m of the opinion now that there are TWO schedules for MS software releases. The public one and an internal private one. Why? They are ALWAYS behind the public schedule. Always. I remember Win 95 being “late”. I believe they know how long these releases will take eg. 3-5 years, and of course, the public’s going to forget all about it by then; at least until the splashy announcement. What better way to keep everyone’s interest piqued by providing a release date 6-12 months hence, then slip a little here and there (and do this several times).
how many times are they going to continue to change their naming convention for their OS?
Numeric versioning 3.1, NT 4 etc.
Date of release(ish) 95, 98, 2000
Latching on to another’s XP
Now Vista… WTF
Dave H:
Thanks for the Looking Glass info and link. That project looks headed straight for a brick wall. I saw NO productivity enhancers. Many of the ideas looked like versions .01 & .02 of Apple concepts. Thought up and moved on from.
Still waiting for new and better interface paradigms from Apple or anybody. Don’t get me wrong, I really like most of OSX, but the designer in me wants to see what will work next.
Vista? whatever.
Wonder how long before MS claims that Tiger is a copy of Vista?
Magic word is care, as in who cares a big rats a– about Vista, we all ready have Tiger.
Hmm Microsoft Windows Vista, that does sound like some of the PR spin required to sell the Emporers new clothes to the unwary masses out there.
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”wink” style=”border:0;” />
I love these quotes from the aricle
“The release of the next-generation Windows is important to the computing universe, if for no other reason than Windows software runs on more than 90 percent of the world’s PCs. It’s also critical to Microsoft’s business. Rick Sherlund, an analyst with Goldman Sachs, estimates Vista could generate between $1 billion and $1.5 billion in revenue the first 18 months after its launch.”
and this one from Steven Addis, chief executive of Addis, a brand strategy and design firm in Berkeley, understands the link between the word “Windows” and “Vista.” Nonetheless, he is disappointed with the new brand.
“I think they could have been a lot more interesting than that,” he said. “If you do a trademark search, `vista’ is as ubiquitous as you can imagine. It doesn’t point to a sense of innovation.”
WINDOWS VIRUS
now there’s a catchy name
So looking glass is where MS are looking. If so then I dont think Apple has a lot to worry about. It seems to me that all they have done is make OSX look very unappealing (how corporate America seems to like it) and amateur. Does Apple have every designer with talent out there? Why can’t these vast companies make products with a gram of style? It puzzles me.
Tim Coughlin
http://timcoughlin.typepad.com
They should have named it Windows 360. Spinning around in circles getting nowhere.
luke, I use Quicktime when I can but since when can QT play WMV?
“… promises similar features to Mac OS X …”
But implemented in Microsoft’s trademark clunky, counterintuitive way.
Nothing to get excited about here – recent screenshots I saw of Longhorn just look like XP with translucent title bars (Why? Because they can) and a glossy Taskbar.
I just found the website for Windows Vista. I was able to play the movie, but I could not for the life of me tell you what it showed. Horrible quality (or lack of, I should say).
I am using an eMac with broadband connection so it isn’t that I’m not getting enough data fast enough.
I noticed in Fry’s they had a PC with the latest AMD chip and they were showing F-1 footage on a nice LCD. It looked like crap and they were bragging on it. My lowly eMac can work circles around it.
I guess I’m just spoiled with Quicktime and VLC on a Mac. I haven’t gotten Tiger yet, but I was sure to update to 10.3.9 so I could get Quicktime 7 with H.264. It made for the best Apple netcast yet from WWDC.
Snowy
Maybe the video only plays on Longwait or is it now Missta nother release date.
Perhaps the lamest name ever. Astonishingly they wasted time, money and resources to come up with this incredibly stupid name.
Then again the same type of effort produced Windows so perhaps it’s understandable. Let see how we are going to promote this..
Windows Vista Cruiser with Exciting Wood Paneling!
Nope, still boring and stupid. Wonder what the courts will say when MS attempts to take http://www.vistawindows.com domain that belongs to a legitimate window and door company.
I’m at work and bored, so I used the company laptop to check out M$’s official site on Windows Vista.
The Video link was just abominable…. not even a candle against QuickTime 7’s abilities.
But worst of all was the content: Two clowns on a stage saying “We have a secret.. shall we tell them the secret?!??” trying to wow the crowds. All those paid to do so clapped their hands.
Then showed a pre-made clip resembling just about every Microsoft PR video clip you’ve ever seen: of a tablet PC in the office, ppl running around with Windows Mobiles, and some guy at his home office with dual screens. Then the punchline: “Windows Vista: Clear Confident Connected. Bringing Clarity to your world.” Absolutely NOTHING to show what’s in it, or how it will “clarify” your world.
Worst still, the actual webpage (http://www.microsoft.com/windowsvista/default.mspx) had no details except “Check back here for all the details”. Hmm… so awe-inspiring (yawn).
“It seamlessly connects you to information, people, and devices that help you get the most out of life”… presumably also seamlessly allows the spread of viruses and distribution of your personal details to the world! how’s that for ‘connected’.
I’m so happy I dont have to worry about this stuff when I get home to my mac mini
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”smile” style=”border:0;” />
Why would a software company put such incredibly crappy quality video about their own product on their own webpage?
http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2005/jul05/07-22LHMA.mspx
Compare this to…
http://www.apple.com/quicktime/qtv/wwdc05/
“Why would a software company put such incredibly crappy quality video about their own product on their own webpage?”
————-
You’ve got that right. Man, if that’s the state of the art for WMV, Gates will be the laughingstock of Hollywood when he comes calling to talk about mobile video devices.
>Microsoft’s Windows ‘Vista’ promises similar features to Apple’s already-shipping Mac OS X>
Promises-promises.
About Vista
Vista is a software environment for computer vision research. It has been under development at the University of British Columbia’s Laboratory for Computational Intelligence since 1991. Version 2.1 was released in June 1994.
It took me a couple of attempts to get the Windows Media Player to play the announcement (“Plays for sure” you know). When it finally ran, I noticed the media player screen size shrink down to about the dimensions of a postage stamp. It’s the only size that is barely tolerable – anything larger is an absolute appalling joke! The image quality is no better than what a person could get out of a cheap $5 digital camera. Windows users are actually ‘proud’ of this???
After reading about all the stuff Microsoft eviscerated, the only improvements one can expect is a more efficient cop and maybe some eye candy. I would not at all be surprised if hackers have viruses ready for Vista within hours of its formal launch…whenever that is.
I think an iPod using, Mac-at-home, M$ employee was in charge of converting and posting that horrendous footage. They have infiltrated Redmond and are sabotaging the monopolizers!!!
I played the movie on my PB and it was dreadful but on a P4 XP SP2 machine the quality was acceptable, but no where close to QT (much less H.264)!
Snowy wrote: “luke, I use Quicktime when I can but since when can QT play WMV?”
http://flip4mac.com/
Ah! From Long Horn to Long View!!
Ah jeese, I found a typo on the Windows Vista webpage. (http://www.microsoft.com/windowsvista/default.mspx) They forgot to put the question mark after ‘2006’. Amateurs.
even the picture on the Vista homepage has people looking far into the horizon waiting for something with nothing in sight.
MacFheargahile wrote :-
Magic word is care, as in who cares a big rats a– about Vista, we all ready have Tiger.
I think he’s getting slightly confused. His comment should really be :-
Magic word is care, as in who cares a big rats a– about macs with less than 4% market share.
To make the experience more convenient for Vista users … MS should tweak the desktop a little:
1) Change the START button to RESTART
2) Add a new button called REINSTALL
Then two of the most common actions would be right at your fingertips
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”smile” style=”border:0;” />