Microsoft's attempt to differentiate the version of Microsoft Internet Explorer (IE) 7 that will ship with Windows Vista has been met with derision, disbelief, and displeasure. The software giant has listened to the complaints and has decided it won't use the IE 7+ moniker it had previously announced. "We planned to call the version of IE 7 in Windows Vista 'Internet Explorer 7+'," Tony Chor, group program manager for IE, wrote in the IE blog late last week. "The feedback we got on the blog was overwhelming \[and\] many of you didn't like it. So, as we've said on our Web site, we heard you. I'm pleased to announce that we're switching the name back to 'Internet Explorer 7.' No plus. No dot x. Just 'Internet Explorer 7.'" If only it were that simple. In keeping with its recent decision to grace every bit of code that appears in Windows with the word "Windows," Microsoft is renaming the versions of IE 7 for Windows XP and Windows Vista with bizarre, lengthy names that actually use the word "Windows" twice in each name. So, Microsoft will call the standalone version of IE 7 (the version that works with XP as well as Windows Server 2003 and XP x64) "Windows Internet Explorer 7 for Windows XP," and it will call the Vista version "Windows Internet Explorer 7 in Windows Vista." In addition to the in-your-face usage of the word "Windows" in both names, there's a subtle difference in the use of prepositions in the names themselves. The standalone IE 7 version is "for" Windows XP, whereas the version that will ship with Vista is referred to as "in" Windows Vista, obviously to denote that IE 7 is, in fact, an integrated part of Vista. Haven't we moved beyond this naming nonsense yet?
Microsoft Renames IE 7 in Vista ... Again
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