Microsoft Names New OS

It was a busy week for Microsoft and one of the things they accomplished was unveiling the name of their new Operating System. Microsoft rejected names that project strength and security, choosing instead something that reflects improved data access and the user interface improvements built into the new OS. They named the new OS: Microsoft Windows Vista.

Since Bill Gates continues to tell financial analysts that security remains Job 1 at Microsoft, I'd have expected the new name might have reflected this. Since they didn't follow this name setting framework it makes me wonder whether Microsoft isn't confident that the changes it's lacing into Windows Vista will actually change the security landscape. Or did Microsoft just want to avoid stirring up a hornet's nest as hackers would surely try to make a phule out of the company for its claims? They will, of course, try to do exactly that regardless of the name Microsoft chose.

There are already hacker groups claiming to have the ability to spoof Genuine Advantage license verification program which was implemented this week on the Microsoft Update pages. Genuine Advantage was designed to alert users to pirated copies of Windows XP and then keep them from downloading anything more than security fixes from the Update site. No doubt IPs from fraudulant copies of the operating system are being databased by the software giant.

Microsoft did have one win this last week, a former Microsoft executive who left the company this month for Google can't begin the work he was hired to do until another round of legal arguments in September, a King County Superior Court judge ordered yesterday. Judge Steven Gonzalez granted Microsoft's request for a temporary restraining order to keep Kai-Fu Lee, the highest-ranking executive at Microsoft to leave for Google, from working on anything that competes with what he did at Microsoft. Google says they are fine with the judges decision as Lee was hired to to open a research center in China, a job that in no way relates to the work he did with Microsoft.