6 ms·

Microsoft has gone through some pretty dark times w.r.t. naming stuff. Up there with "Windows" everything and absurdities like ".net Passport" was their unslak

by sk5t 7y ago

Microsoft has gone through some pretty dark times w.r.t. naming stuff. Up there with "Windows" everything and absurdities like ".net Passport" was their unslakable thirst for "Active." ActiveX, Active Server Pages, Active Data Objects. However, none of it holds a candle to IBM's mania for making everything "Websphere."

jjtheblunt 7y ago
Or Watson
- sk5t 7y ago
  For sure, although whereas the Websphere-ing of the product line seemed like a plausible effort at consistent branding, Watson feels more like a cynical measure to appear relevant, but nobody's buying it. On the "active" bandwagon, I forgot to mention Active Directory, which is kind of funny given that I spent the better part of a decade specializing in development and projects largely oriented around AD and ADFS, and which is maybe the only Active-branded thing still going strong.
  - sebazzz 7y ago
    I don't think anyone refers to it as Active Server Pages .NET Core but the abbreviation still carries it.
  - giancarlostoro 7y ago
    I have a feeling business people eat up Watson. Nobody got fired for buying IBM as they say. I was at a telecoms conference and they did a demo and mentioned the systems could use Watson for speech to text functionality. Someone somewhere is buying into it whether directly or indirectly.
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
Pxtl 7y ago
Dark times are still happening. Right now they're renaming everything Azure regardless of whether it's part of their cloud offerings. Also, Live was another Microsoft naming phase. For me, the canary in the coal mine of ms naming is their messenger. Msn messenger, live messenger, Skype, Skype for business, Teams... I assume the next iteration will be named Azure Teams.
- ulfw 7y ago
  I give you msn and live messenger. All the other ones are literally different products each. I expect different products to have different names. Why there were so many messenger products is a different question. Anyone from Google wanna jump in and explain this one? ;)
  - giancarlostoro 7y ago
    My best guess is Skype was much more profitable than MSN. But Microsoft took the best features of Skype and removed them and the quality got diminished probably in order to monkeypatch Lync into Skype as well as MSN at the time. After like 2013 I never used Skype again. Now everyone I know either uses Discord or Slack. Teams was at least the right direction for business focus but it seems they shoulda QAd it much more. I dont hear much positive about Teams.
  - Nullabillity 7y ago
    Skype had its guts ripped out and replaced with MSN shortly after the purchase.
- Spooky23 7y ago
  Followed by Azure Teams for Office 365. The messenger naming example is also apropos because each successive generation of bad naming is also a generation of product that is measurably worse in some way. It goes to demonstrate the durability of software canaries!
- puranjay 7y ago
  Microsoft's email services are still a naming mess. Live, Outlook and Hotmail all seem to be interconnected, and I don't really know what differentiates them anymore.
agumonkey 7y ago
are you saying websphere is not rational ?
- sk5t 7y ago
  Needs more Tivoli.
mackrevinack 7y ago
naming things definitely isn't there strong point having to click the "start" button to shut down your computer is probably the most illogical one. and somehow it managed to stay that way for 15 years until someone got the bright idea to just but an icon there instead "microsoft windows phone 7 series" was a mouth full compared to "apple iphone". luckily they changed that soon after but its crazy to think of the amount of people that were involved in that project and none of them spoke up about how stupid the name sounded a recent one is the app "your phone". it just doesn't sound right. i imagine it would be even more awkward when someone has to search the term. "hey google, my your phone isnt working" windows security centre changes its name every year. I could go on
- com2kid 7y ago
  As I like to point out, on macOS you click on an icon of literal fruit to shutdown the computer. The first time Win95 was started, a giant arrow pointed to the start button. It was rather discoverable. Now Win8, I had to look up how to shut it down, the rtm version was a UX disaster.
pndy 7y ago
> Up there with "Windows" everything and absurdities like ".net Passport" .NET Passport went thru series of rebranding: Microsoft Passport, Windows Live ID and of course the current Microsoft Account. In some places they also tried to roll everything under MSN brand which later was replaced partially by Windows Live and then again, once they managed to combine their services, MSN applications were bundled with Windows 8 and 10 (News, Weather, Sports etc.). Not mention all GUI changes across the years... Microsoft trying to figure out what's its brand identity it's like a kid who tries to combine a single image of various jigsaw puzzles sets, periodically smashing pieces together to fit
codeulike 7y ago
Don't forget Active Directory, the only Active-branded product that is still, er, active.

by sk5t 7y ago

jjtheblunt 7y ago

Or Watson

sk5t 7y ago
For sure, although whereas the Websphere-ing of the product line seemed like a plausible effort at consistent branding, Watson feels more like a cynical measure to appear relevant, but nobody's buying it. On the "active" bandwagon, I forgot to mention Active Directory, which is kind of funny given that I spent the better part of a decade specializing in development and projects largely oriented around AD and ADFS, and which is maybe the only Active-branded thing still going strong.
- sebazzz 7y ago
  I don't think anyone refers to it as Active Server Pages .NET Core but the abbreviation still carries it.
- giancarlostoro 7y ago
  I have a feeling business people eat up Watson. Nobody got fired for buying IBM as they say. I was at a telecoms conference and they did a demo and mentioned the systems could use Watson for speech to text functionality. Someone somewhere is buying into it whether directly or indirectly.

deleted 7y ago

[deleted]

Pxtl 7y ago

Dark times are still happening. Right now they're renaming everything Azure regardless of whether it's part of their cloud offerings. Also, Live was another Microsoft naming phase. For me, the canary in the coal mine of ms naming is their messenger. Msn messenger, live messenger, Skype, Skype for business, Teams... I assume the next iteration will be named Azure Teams.

ulfw 7y ago
I give you msn and live messenger. All the other ones are literally different products each. I expect different products to have different names. Why there were so many messenger products is a different question. Anyone from Google wanna jump in and explain this one? ;)
- giancarlostoro 7y ago
  My best guess is Skype was much more profitable than MSN. But Microsoft took the best features of Skype and removed them and the quality got diminished probably in order to monkeypatch Lync into Skype as well as MSN at the time. After like 2013 I never used Skype again. Now everyone I know either uses Discord or Slack. Teams was at least the right direction for business focus but it seems they shoulda QAd it much more. I dont hear much positive about Teams.
- Nullabillity 7y ago
  Skype had its guts ripped out and replaced with MSN shortly after the purchase.
Spooky23 7y ago
Followed by Azure Teams for Office 365. The messenger naming example is also apropos because each successive generation of bad naming is also a generation of product that is measurably worse in some way. It goes to demonstrate the durability of software canaries!
puranjay 7y ago
Microsoft's email services are still a naming mess. Live, Outlook and Hotmail all seem to be interconnected, and I don't really know what differentiates them anymore.

agumonkey 7y ago

are you saying websphere is not rational ?

sk5t 7y ago
Needs more Tivoli.

mackrevinack 7y ago

naming things definitely isn't there strong point having to click the "start" button to shut down your computer is probably the most illogical one. and somehow it managed to stay that way for 15 years until someone got the bright idea to just but an icon there instead "microsoft windows phone 7 series" was a mouth full compared to "apple iphone". luckily they changed that soon after but its crazy to think of the amount of people that were involved in that project and none of them spoke up about how stupid the name sounded a recent one is the app "your phone". it just doesn't sound right. i imagine it would be even more awkward when someone has to search the term. "hey google, my your phone isnt working" windows security centre changes its name every year. I could go on

com2kid 7y ago
As I like to point out, on macOS you click on an icon of literal fruit to shutdown the computer. The first time Win95 was started, a giant arrow pointed to the start button. It was rather discoverable. Now Win8, I had to look up how to shut it down, the rtm version was a UX disaster.

pndy 7y ago

> Up there with "Windows" everything and absurdities like ".net Passport" .NET Passport went thru series of rebranding: Microsoft Passport, Windows Live ID and of course the current Microsoft Account. In some places they also tried to roll everything under MSN brand which later was replaced partially by Windows Live and then again, once they managed to combine their services, MSN applications were bundled with Windows 8 and 10 (News, Weather, Sports etc.). Not mention all GUI changes across the years... Microsoft trying to figure out what's its brand identity it's like a kid who tries to combine a single image of various jigsaw puzzles sets, periodically smashing pieces together to fit

codeulike 7y ago

Don't forget Active Directory, the only Active-branded product that is still, er, active.