Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft has re-branded its long-awaited operating system, ditching the term .NET from what was Windows .NET Server 2003. Microsoft said the move provides greater clarity and avoids confusion for partners and customers.
It’s just the latest name for the operating system that has changed titles more often than the software’s planned shipment dates. Company chairman and chief software architect Bill Gates announced a new delivery date – the third – last November, as April 2003.
Yesterday’s announcement of Windows Server 2003 represents the operating system’s fourth name change. Starting life codenamed Whistler, the operating system shared the codename with what became known as Windows XP, for use on desktops.
Microsoft initially named the Whistler server Windows 2002 in April 2001 as it committed to delivery by the middle of 2002. Just two months later, though, Gates unveiled a new name – Windows .NET Server, in keeping with the company’s .NET web services strategy. The name, though, was regarded as temporary until something sexier was devised
In August 2002, Microsoft re-named Windows .NET Server 2003 as it also shifted delivery from the end of 2002 to April 2003.
With a promised plethora of .NET web services yet to materialize, though, Microsoft could be seen as attempting to down-play this element when selling bread-and-butter products to cash-starved IT buyers. Microsoft denied this was the case.
Instead, the company cited confusion among customers and partners as the reason for this latest change. Microsoft said feedback called for greater clarity of Microsoft’s .NET strategy and programs – .NET has been applied liberally by Microsoft to many of its business and developer products.
Instead, Microsoft said it is making an effort to clarify the naming and branding strategy for .NET. In a briefing to partners, Microsoft said: As support for web services becomes intrinsic across our entire product line, we are moving toward a consistent naming and branding strategy, to better enable partners to affiliate with this strategy and customers to identify .NET-enabled products.
Microsoft plans a Microsoft .NET Connected logo for partners it said will help customers identify solutions and products that support standards-based interoperability.
Microsoft said Windows [.NET] Server 2003 is the first product to be effected by what it called an attempt to clarify naming and branding for .NET. The company did not provide details, but the Visual Studio.NET developer suite is one prime candidate for change.
Source: Computerwire
