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Mike Nash, former Security Guru and current Client Guru over at Microsoft, has just announced on the Windows Vista Blog that the new name for Windows “7” will be:

Windows 6.1 7

…which makes me wonder why it’s going to be NT 6.1.

It also means that Windows Strata will likely be the codename for the new Cloud OS discussed by Ballmer earlier this month. We’ll carry more about all of this from PDC in two weeks.

Update: Brandon followed up with me on twitter saying it’s the 7th release of Windows, which is ridiculous:

1. Windows
2. Windows 2
3. Windows 3.0
4. Windows NT (NT 4)
5. Windows 2000 (NT 5)
6. Windows XP (NT 5.1)
7. Windows Vista (NT 6)

That’s 7 releases right there, including XP. If XP isn’t counted because it’s Kernel 5.1 (which would bring the total with Windows 7 back down to seven), then why is Windows 7 being counted as the “seventh” release if it’s kernel 6.1? I hope I’m not the only one seeing the naming problem here.

Kernel increments are used mostly for application compatibility purposes, but still, the logic is lost upon us as most people would count XP as a semi-major release in comparison to 2000. I hope the guys at the Blog have an update, because this is weird.

More potential views of how this could have worked (Update 2: as well as Mike’s clarification) after the break.

So let’s take a look at client releases which may have targeted consumers outside a business environment:

1. Windows
2. Windows 2
3. Windows 3.0
4. Windows 95
5. Windows 98
6. Windows ME
7. Windows XP
8. Windows Vista

Those would be the versions of Windows targeted towards a more “homey” audience, and even then, the total hits seven before Windows 7 comes into the picture without including the incremental versions that came between Windows 3.0 (1990) and Windows 95 (1995).

How about business releases?

1. Windows 3.1
2. Windows 3.5
3. Windows NT 4
4. Windows 2000
5. Windows XP
6. Windows Vista
7. Windows 7

Aha! Some success! But how confusing would it be to know that Windows 7 is the seventh Windows based on a list of client operating systems for businesses, and that that list starts at 3.1?

The only approach I see which could possibly work is based on counting kernel revisions, which would only make sense if they did not count XP and also decided to increment the NT kernel to 7, which might just be the biggest piece of news here: enough changes may have been made to the kernel itself to warrant Windows 7’s consideration as an all-around major release.

I adore Microsoft’s quest for simplicity here, but thanks mostly to this attempt, my mind is blown.

“Simply put, this is the seventh release of Windows, so therefore ‘Windows 7′ just makes sense.”
-Mike Nash

Right. Except it doesn’t.

Update 2: Thanks, Mike! Here’s the answer we were looking for:

We learned a lot about using 5.1 for XP and how that helped developers with version checking for API compatibility.  We also had the lesson reinforced when we applied the version number in the Windows Vista code as Windows 6.0– that changing basic version numbers can cause application compatibility issues.

So we decided to ship the Windows 7 code as Windows 6.1 – which is what you will see in the actual version of the product in cmd.exe or computer properties.

There’s been some fodder about whether using 6.1 in the code is an indicator of the relevance of Windows 7.  It is not.

Windows 7 is a significant and evolutionary advancement of the client operating system.  It is in every way a major effort in design, engineering and innovation.  The only thing to read into the code versioning is that we are absolutely committed to making sure application compatibility is optimized for our customers.

So, basically, Windows 7 will be 6.1 for appcompat reasons, but they’ll still count it as the seventh release of Windows (XP and 2000 were thrown in one net as release 5)

Mike, I hope no poor bloke sees a winver dialog and decides to sue, thinking he was ripped off.

Alright, so I talked about Windows 7’s pillars not so long ago. Paul, along with a member of our forums, recently mentioned build 6780 as Milestone 3. This post serves as my thoughts of what might hypothetically exist in this build based on what I saw in M1. I’ll start with the applications:

Based on the trend we saw in M1, The Sidebar the thing which really shouldn’t be called the sidebar anymore will be embedded into the desktop even further, eventually annihilating the concept of a sidebar in the first place. The gadgets might remain on the side, but for all intents and purposes, the gadgets might just stay on the desktop, ready and willing to be called to the front using a key combination (not different from what you see in Vista now: Win+Space to pull gadgets to the front in Vista). It will likely be more heavily integrated into the shell than we saw in Milestone 1. Besides these changes, I doubt M3 would have anything different for the user who takes a look. The gadgets thus far would most likely be the same, though I personally hope they switch to a better codebase for the gadgets.

Wordpad and Paint will likely have seen major overhauls to their user interfaces by this point. My suspicion is that they will probably have adopted an Office-esque look along with possibly some added tools and features for both, simply for the sake of consistency. Since adding tools to Paint and Wordpad likely isn’t the Windows team’s largest focus, one could expect to see two or three tabs for the ribbon. By this point, there likely won’t be any other major changes, though seeing feature additions in the future would definitely be in line. Update 9-16-08 8:39PM: Looks like I was right. Stephen has a screenshot.

Calculator in Milestone 1 saw a few minor functional and visual tweaks, such as the addition of programming and statistics modes. With this in mind, it’s reasonable to expect the calculator to be much more aesthetically pleasing in order to follow suit with the pattern likely established by Wordpad and Paint. After all, bundled applications will be seeing an overhaul in Windows 7, so expect them to look similar in terms of design. Calculator almost definitely will not carry an Office UI, as it isn’t a productivity application per se.

Windows Media Player likely won’t see much of an overhaul from Milestone 1 besides possibly being more organized and pretty. It will also start to take a shape of its own as it turns into Windows Media Player 12.

Milestone 3 could also carry rough implementations of various technologies which carried merely a footnote’s worth of importance in Milestone 1. Quick examples:

Homegroups might actually work by now! I suspect the Homegroups feature to be much more well integrated into the networking center as well as other functions in Windows 7 Milestone 3. Joining a computer to a Homegroup, for instance, would likely be something which could be done from the Network and Sharing Center as opposed to only being established during the OOBE what used to be called the OOBE as it was in Milestone 1. It might even be possible to join a computer to multiple Homegroups , though if you only have one home, I’m not sure what good this would do.

Windows Live integration will most likely have increased compared to the first milestone. It wouldn’t be a surprise if Internet Explorer 8 accelerators found their way into Windows 7, likely with shortcuts to make things easier (such as Microphone commands and quick access to accelerators via a taskbar toolbar, perhaps). Also, as has been making the rounds recently on sites such as LiveSide and All About Microsoft, certain applications present in Windows Vista will, by now, start being subtracted from Windows and dropped under the Windows Live designation.

Themes probably wouldn’t be such a discombobulated process for the user in Milestone 3 as it was in Windows Vista. As a part of the goal to make simple tasks easier to do in Vista, a number of quick thematic combinations (visual themes. Probably nothing fancy yet) will likely find their homes in the main Personalization page by way of an iconic representation of the final outcome. Customization would still be available to those who wish to choose something less standard, but the default combos would be helpful for selecting a mode on a glance, such as a high contrast mode for those who have difficulties seeing what’s on their screen.

Other minor visual tweaks will almost definitely exist, likely in the start menu and in typical folderview. However, features such as the “superbar” seen at D6 may not be available out of the box, if at all.

That’s it for my speculative extrapolation on what Milestone 3 of Windows 7 hypothetically could contain. Tomorrow, I’ll detail how one feature which I discussed in the first serving of yam dip might work in Windows 7.

Before I really jump in, I should explain why leaks of this magnitude are bad. Believe it or not, these leaks do hurt Microsoft and the dev process of the operating system, especially this early in the cycle. When a leak happens, Microsoft has to devote time to investigating the leak and trying to pin down a source, ultimately the internal source or OEM who leaked it. Leaks are also bad because there are just some things that aren’t ready to be seen outside of Redmond yet, especially by the average Joe user. Say a build leaks, and average Joe doesn’t like a certain feature, or even more realistic, finds a real nasty bug. He blogs about that and next thing you know everyone is jumping on the slingfest bandwagon and presto, bad image before the product is even out of the gate.

The main thing about the 6519 leak that gets me is the fact that it leaked after so much time. I can only assume that it came from someone in the group that got the build about a month ago, and for some reason was looking for a “15 minutes of fame” moment. There is, however, a silver lining to all of this. The build is hard coded to expire on June 6th, after which date the activation system will lock you out of the system. Why someone would leak after expiration, you ask? Well it’s actually a pretty simple answer. They get their little moment of fame and (they think) cause little damage to Microsoft since Joe user can’t use it on a daily basis. The fact is though, the beta community is rather unique, we take builds of OS’s and actually use them on our machines to tinker with and see the direction that Microsoft is going with the future of Windows. With 6519, running on the current date is now impossible, but the OS can be used if you set the date back before expiration, which some will probably be willing to do, just for bragging rights.

I guess the point I am trying to make with all of this is 6519 never should have been leaked, but it is the unfortunate fact that we have some people in this community that just can’t seem to keep anything under wraps and thinks that leaking a build will gain them some kind of celebrity status. That could not be more inaccurate. Within the last few years leakers have been looked upon as the black sheep in the community, for the exact reasons that I mentioned earlier. The fact is that these people will never learn, and will likely continue to do things like this.

Wired has an interesting article on how the iPhone boosted smartphone sales for other manufacturers (most notably RIM and Palm). With the next version of the iPhone now released, you might be asking yourself

• What will Microsoft do to keep Apple from breaking into the enterprise smartphone market?
• Why haven’t I bought this new iPhone yet?
• What’s that pretty thing in the Crystal Ball?

Now might be a good time to analyze the potential impact Apple’s iPhone might have on Windows Mobile.

The current version of Windows Mobile is version 6.1… which is still based on Windows CE 5.2 despite the release of Windows CE 6.0 back in November of 2006, which is well over a year ago. Windows Mobile 7 will be based on either Windows CE 6 or a later version of Windows CE judging by its anticipated mid-to-late 2009 release. Since the last major Windows CE release, two iPhones have come along and, according to the people watching today’s WWDC keynote, eclipsed every smartphone in existence (we’ll disregard the argument that the iPhone is not a suitable enterprise tool for now).

Since the moment news of the first iPhone broke two Januarys ago, companies such as Meizu and HTC have tried to revamp the Windows Mobile interface with their own code, though only HTC has actually managed to push anything to the market. A number of threads discussing the new HTC Touch Pro have come and gone, with many people as-yet-unaffected by Mr. Jobs’ Reality Distortion Field seriously weighing the unreleased Touch (less so with its Diamond sibling) against the new iPhone and another HTC project, the Sony Ericsson XPERIA X1.

The impact of the iPhone is already visible in the preparation of new user interfaces for both Windows Mobile and RIM’s Blackberry (the Bold UI). However, with the announcement that iPhone v2 will carry full Exchange support, the latest iPhone is also making an attempt to invade the enterprise smartphone realm, and third party innovations for smartphones in this department typically have a high FAIL rate in catching on, so it’s up to Microsoft to keep itself awake and running. HTC pulled a lucky rabbit from its proverbial top-hat, but HTC’s experience lies in what most people in the Orient prefer with their phones: glitz, glamour, and lots of overly pretty animated functions, menus, spinning icons, and other similar user interface clutterings enhancements which missed the Longhorn boat back in 2004.

This gets me to what I think Microsoft might be forced to do with Apple’s growling 2ft-tall-and-growing-fast presence in front of it.

Background Applications won’t go away. Even though Apple had a fun jab at how background applications eat battery power and performance, I personally don’t believe Microsoft will let background applications go the way of the dodo. Instead, Microsoft will likely make enhancements to how Windows Mobile manages background applications. This will save battery power (good!) while making it less likely that your phone will be infected with spyware (good!), while also preserving backwards compatibility (good, but not as enthusiastically good).

A revamped user interface will likely be issued with Windows Mobile 7. While this has already been discussed many times in the past, I personally think the new UI will be developed in tandem with Windows 7’s User Interface. We’ve seen Windows 7’s poorly executed touch demo at D6 (I’ll keep my 50 cents Steve, thank you), but I think that Microsoft will keep a similar but highly condensed touch-centric user experience for Windows Mobile 7 for two reasons:

1. The iPhone has already made touch look cool, and with companies such as HTC pulling off some of the most ingenious touch interfaces , touch and gestures won’t be going away.
2. Microsoft has a history of keeping things looking alike (and yet disjointedly different at the same time) for the sake of branding. Windows Mobile 6 had this mildly Vista-esque feel through the use of gradients and glossed elements. On the other hand, this is a phone. One of the problems some people have with the iPhone is that while the user interface is great, the time it takes to go from one place to another (despite the presence of the home button) can get a bit annoying with the animations and other UI tidbits in place. In consumer environments, a glitzy UI is great, but in snappy business environments when CEOs are jumping from cabs and limousines to business meetings in skyscrapers while trying to arrange that multi-million (or billion) dollar merger during the only 30 second time slot available in the elevator trip to the top floor, the last thing that is needed are animations which eat time.

With that in mind, Windows 7 might be less of a festival of motion than Windows Mobile 6.1 with HTC’s TouchFLO, with a new interface likely catering to both businessmen and consumers alike.

Accelerated Development might split priority between Windows 7 and Windows Mobile 7. Should the two systems share a similar user interface, seeing Microsoft split its resources down the middle for both Windows and Windows Mobile might not be the largest surprise. One of Microsoft’s most successful areas is within the corporate sector, and with the iPhone trying to barge in, Microsoft might be much more inclined than before to put more emphasis on Windows Mobile development. With connectivity becoming the ultimate focus for Windows 7, seeing a heavy emphasis on connectivity between Windows Mobile, 7 and Windows 7 might be less of a shock now than it might’ve been, say, three to six months ago. This doesn’t mean we’ll see Windows 7 launch in 2009, nor does it mean that Windows 7 will come before the second half of next year (but it might). All it means is that more teams might be devoted to Windows Mobile 7, with collaboration between both Windows and Windows Mobile development climbing much higher than ever before. This could also mean that a number of Microsoft’s Windows 7 “pillars” will carry over into Windows Mobile.

Mind you, all of this is my own mindless speculation. The iPhone is not a crystal ball, I can’t see into the future, and the phone in the ball is an HTC Touch Pro. If you have any other ideas as to which directions Microsoft might take with Windows Mobile, post! Comments are below, but before you post, here’s a dose of irony, courtesy of Paul Thurrott.