Go placidly amid the noise and haste, and remember what peace there may be in silence.

Microsoft recently released the official name of the successor to Windows Vista, which has been codenamed Windows 7 for over a year now. The new name?

Windows 7.

It looks virtually identical to Vista at the moment, but it is common knowledge that Microsoft tends to work on the back-end of things first, before giving the UI a much needed bump. (Vista looked very like XP until the late betas.) Although 3rd June 2009 is the planned release date, I’d be surprised if they managed it before 2010 (especially with their previous track record in this area). However, Milestone 3 of Windows 7 (essentially an early alpha build) shows a ribbon-like interface for integrated programs (a bit like the exceedingly annoying new UI of Office 2007) and the abandonment of some integrated programs such as the contact, mail and calendar apps. (Have you ever used any of these? I thought not.)

However, as is popular with the internet, people make fun of you. So I’ll leave you with something that I thought seemed amusing, and oddly relevant considering the topic of this post.

- David