Mike Nash, corporate VP for Windows product management, announced that the official name of the new Windows is Windows 7 . They've decided to go for the beta name and move away from the Vista brand. Mister Nash was excited to show this new product “to the world for the first time" and added how the OS is all about simplicity; and since it’s the 7th Windows OS so far, it’s named Windows 7.
The company decided against year numbers in the title or other “aspirational” names because it’s more of an enhancement over Vista. We, on the other hand, are mystified as to why is it called a “new OS,” then - I mean, Vista SE would probably be more fair to the customers.
Those who attend the upcoming PDC 2008 will get a chance to glimpse at Windows 7, but Microsoft will apparently be handing out pre-beta releases, too. The OS was initially supposed to launch in 2010, but since Vista is such a great OS, they decided to hurry the launch up to 2H of 2009. Let’s just hope they do it right this time.
More here.