Windows 7?

Some of you may not have heard, but Microsoft has released the Windows 7 Beta for techies (like me and many of you) to preview and help build buy-in and interest. It's pretty obvious to most of us that the seemingly hurried release schedule is in direct response to the bad press and poor response that Windows Vista has been buried under. Personally, I don't understand why so many people are willing to jump on the Vista-bashing bandwagon. Perhaps it is the pack mentality or "all the cool kids are doing it" or they simply fear change. Whatever. I've been using Windows Vista Ultimate since I got my first beta back in late September of 2006 and I don't have many problems with it... fewer than with XP... but definitely different. That said, I'm an IT guy who has focused on using Microsoft server and desktop products over the years, so I'm a different kind of user, and I can be more forgiving than others.

What I'm really here to bring up is the name "Windows 7". Really? That doesn't sound right. Let's count the versions:

[DISCLAIMER: in the HTML, this is an ordered list with numbers, so I don't have any idea where the freakin' flower bullet points are coming from]

1. Windows 1.0 - I remember the box, but I think I used GEM at the time
2. Windows 2.0 - I think I immediately upgraded to 2.03 with overlapping windows, rather than sticking with 2.0's tiled window interface. I also used Word for the first time with this version
3. Windows 3.0 - it is arguable that Windows 3.1, and 3.11 for Workgroups were different enough to be "versions"
4. Microsoft Bob - I had blocked this from my memory, but Trent pointed it out and I must include it
5. Windows 95 - this was like day and night when compared to 3.1
6. Windows 98 - I think Windows 98SE (as in Second Edition) is worthy of being called a separate "version"
7. Windows Me - ::hork:: let's not talk about the "Millenium Edition"
8. Windows XP - for Home, Pro, or Media Center Edition, this was a nice improvement
9. Windows Vista - Home Basic, Home Premium, and Ultimate
10. Windows 7 - or should that be "Windows 10"... oops, make that "Windows X"?

[Pre-update]
When I counted this with the guys in my IT crew, we ended up with ten, but that included Windows 2000 in the list, which is really a different "flavor" of Windows (covered below). That would make it "Windows 10"... or "Windows X"... "Windows OS X". That makes me uncomfortable.

[Post-update]
With the Microsoft Bob included, the list is now up to ten. "Windows X" it should have been! However, with my mentioning it here, there are lawyers at Apple twitching, Mac fanboys getting the "Windows just copies Mac" flame-mails ready, and perhaps even Microsoft lawyers hovering near "cease and desist" documents. All in good fun! :)

Maybe they were counting "IT professional" version of Windows when they came up with the name? Let's count:

1. Windows NT 3.1
2. Windows NT 3.5
3. Windows NT 3.51
4. Windows NT 4
5. Windows 2000 Professional
6. Windows XP Professional - the much beloved XP Pro so many people have latched onto
7. Windows Vista - Business or Enterprise editions (by the way, Vista is "Longhorn" for those who wonder where that version went)
8. Windows 7 - or should that be "Windows 8"

If I condense the IT pro list down to leading version numbers, we'd only have six, not seven.

I could break out all the different editions, service packs, and releases into their own items, but the lists would be even longer. We could throw in DOS versions, but they are not Windows even if they are operating systems for the PC.

Wait, I think I see what they did:

1. Windows 1.0
2. Windows 2.0
3. Windows 3.0
4. Windows 9x (95, 98, Me)
5. Windows XP
6. Windows Vista
7. Windows 7

That's cheating the list's count though. It's probably a marketing spin on the underpinning technologies of Windows. Thanks to Wikipedia for having a good list for me to check my memory against.