4 ms·

> Their "copilot" brand is so weird and... muddled. Microsoft can't brand anything cleanly and unambiguously. "MSN Messenger" / "Windows Messenger" / "Windows

> Their "copilot" brand is so weird and... muddled. Microsoft can't brand anything cleanly and unambiguously. "MSN Messenger" / "Windows Messenger" / "Windows Live Messenger" / "Microsoft Lync" "Internet Explorer" / "Windows Explorer" / "MSN Explorer" Windows 95 email client "Exchange" / email server platform "Exchange" "Outlook" / "Outlook Web Access" / "Outlook Web App" / "Outlook.com" / "new Outlook for Windows" "Microsoft Teams" / "New Microsoft Teams" "Office Communicator" / "Microsoft Lync" / "Skype for Business" / "Skype" / "Skype for Business Online" / "Skype for Business for Microsoft 365" The most guffaw-inducing branding, to me, was the recently-announced remote desktop client called "Windows App". That's going to be an easy one for users to search for. (For guffaw-inducing I suppose there's also the Windows 98-era "Critical Update Notification Tool"[0]) [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Update#Critical_Update_Notification_Utility https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Update#Critical_Update... (Edit: Yikes. I didn't even consider .NET. Windows.NET server. .NET Framework. ASP.NET. .NET Core. Ugh...) More editing because I can't stop myself: "Great Plains" / "Navision" / "Solomon" / "Axapta" / "Dynamics AX" / "Dynamics GP" / "Dynamics SL" / "Dynamics NAV" / "Dynamics 365" / "Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations" / "Dynamics 365 Business Central" More editing because I was egged-on... >smile< "Windows Defender" / "Microsoft Defender" / "Windows Defender Antivirus" / "Windows Firewall" / "Windows Defender Firewall" / "Microsoft AntiSpyware" / "Microsoft Security Essentials" / "System Center Endpoint Protection" Oh, ugh... then there's the whole "Microsoft Proxy" / "Forefront" / "Federated Identity Manager" nightmare. Then there's "System Management Server" / "System Center" and that whole train of products. Edit: Forgot SharePoint "Microsoft FrontPage" / "Site Server" / "Site Server Commerce Edition" / "Office Server" / "SharePoint Portal Server" / "Windows SharePoint Services" / "Microsoft Office SharePoint Server" / "SharePoint Foundation" / "SharePoint Server" / "SharePoint Standard" / "SharePoint Enterprise" / "SharePoint Online" / "SharePoint Designer"

brazzledazzle 2y ago
Let's not forget Azure AD is now Microsoft Entra.
- EvanAnderson 2y ago
  "Office 365" / "Microsoft 365", too... >sigh<
  - wkat4242 2y ago
    They're actually still separate products. They don't want to sell office 365 but it still exists. M365 = office 365 plus windows as a service licensing. If you buy your licenses as lifetime with your laptops it is much cheaper to simply subscribe to O365. Thus Microsoft is gating more and more things behind M365 to get companies to pay for the expensive windows subscription.
aragonite 2y ago
From Wikipedia: [1] > Universal Windows Platform (UWP) apps (formerly Windows Store apps, Metro-style apps and Modern apps)... Ironically, that list misses another former name, "Windows App" (different from the "Windows App" you guffawed at). That name was used around 2017 and used extensively in the 7th edition of Windows Internals. [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Windows_Platform_apps https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Windows_Platform_a...
dark__paladin 2y ago
To add to this, I have always found the Xbox naming conventions to be confusing, personally. "Xbox One" is the third one, not the original "Xbox" and the two newest models are named almost identically; "Xbox Series X" vs "Xbox Series S".
- mikebenfield 2y ago
  I always thought calling it Xbox One was the most bizarre choice in the history of branding and marketing. Given how common it is to retroactively refer to the first item in a series as "One" (Rambo 1, Rocky 1, Playstation 1, etc), it seems intentionally designed to cause confusion.
  - Narishma 2y ago
    I find that name even more baffling when the reason they apparently branded the previous one Xbox 360 was so that they wouldn't go against the PS3 with an Xbox 2. Somehow it was now fine for an Xbox One to go against a PS4.
  - selcuka 2y ago
    This is beyond being bizarre. I have never owned an Xbox, and always thought that Xbox One was a re-release of the original Xbox, similar to the Original PlayStation -> PS One. I am hearing it for the first time here that it was a third generation device.
- LelouBil 2y ago
  For the latest ones it's fair because the S is a lower tier to the X
  - pfist 2y ago
    Sure, but the problem is S and X sound very similar when spoken, causing more confusion. Try clarifying which one you are talking about in a loud room at a conference.
    - 2y ago
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
ackfoobar 2y ago
"Azure Active Directory" (now "Entra ID") and "Active Directory" caused me a great deal of confusion.
- EvanAnderson 2y ago
  "Active Directory" / "Active Directory Domain Service" / "Active Directory Application Mode" / "Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services" / "Azure Active Directory" / "Entra Id" / "Active Directory Federation Services" / "Active Directory Certificate Services" / "Active Directory Rights Management Services" Ugh... and don't even get my started about the pronunciation of "Azure" (or the fact that, somehow, they took a project code-named "Red Dog" and named it after the color blue. Then there's the JEt Red and Jet Blue database engines, one of which was used by Active Directory...)
  - tanseydavid 2y ago
    Don't forget "Azure Active Directory B2C".
  - Peanuts99 2y ago
    You're forgetting Azure Active Directory Domain Services, which is presumably now named Entra AD Domain Services which is different from Azure AD/Entra AD because it's a managed domain controller in Azure...
zaat 2y ago
You've missed Defender there Edit: you updated defender, but you missed the depth of the rabbit hole. There's defender for office 365, there's defender for IoT, for Containers, for cloud, for cloud apps, for identity. There's one for gramma too
flyingswift 2y ago
Team Foundation Server -> Visual Studio Team Services -> Azure DevOps
pjob 2y ago
One team I was on had a bug where the product name was so long that it was being truncated in the about dialog. It was something like: Microsoft Dynamics® CRM 2011 for Microsoft® Office Outlook® with Offline Access
biglyburrito 2y ago
In 2013, "Team Foundation Services" was renamed to "Visual Studio Online". In 2015, "Visual Studio Online" was renamed to "Visual Studio Team Services". In 2018, "Visual Studio Team Services" was renamed to "Azure DevOps Services".
bloaf 2y ago
Don’t forget “Windows Live Mesh/Windows Live FolderShare/Live Mesh/Windows Live Sync/Windows Live Folders/Windows Live SkyDrive/SkyDrive/OneDrive” To be fair, they have mostly settled on OneDrive after the lawsuit that forced the name change.
ptk 2y ago
It’s called “Intune” / sorry, “Microsoft Endpoint Manager” is a way better name / just kidding, it’s “Intune” again! We had you there for a second though!

brazzledazzle 2y ago

Let's not forget Azure AD is now Microsoft Entra.

EvanAnderson 2y ago
"Office 365" / "Microsoft 365", too... >sigh<
- wkat4242 2y ago
  They're actually still separate products. They don't want to sell office 365 but it still exists. M365 = office 365 plus windows as a service licensing. If you buy your licenses as lifetime with your laptops it is much cheaper to simply subscribe to O365. Thus Microsoft is gating more and more things behind M365 to get companies to pay for the expensive windows subscription.

aragonite 2y ago

From Wikipedia: [1] > Universal Windows Platform (UWP) apps (formerly Windows Store apps, Metro-style apps and Modern apps)... Ironically, that list misses another former name, "Windows App" (different from the "Windows App" you guffawed at). That name was used around 2017 and used extensively in the 7th edition of Windows Internals. [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Windows_Platform_apps https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Windows_Platform_a...

dark__paladin 2y ago

To add to this, I have always found the Xbox naming conventions to be confusing, personally. "Xbox One" is the third one, not the original "Xbox" and the two newest models are named almost identically; "Xbox Series X" vs "Xbox Series S".

mikebenfield 2y ago
I always thought calling it Xbox One was the most bizarre choice in the history of branding and marketing. Given how common it is to retroactively refer to the first item in a series as "One" (Rambo 1, Rocky 1, Playstation 1, etc), it seems intentionally designed to cause confusion.
- Narishma 2y ago
  I find that name even more baffling when the reason they apparently branded the previous one Xbox 360 was so that they wouldn't go against the PS3 with an Xbox 2. Somehow it was now fine for an Xbox One to go against a PS4.
- selcuka 2y ago
  This is beyond being bizarre. I have never owned an Xbox, and always thought that Xbox One was a re-release of the original Xbox, similar to the Original PlayStation -> PS One. I am hearing it for the first time here that it was a third generation device.
LelouBil 2y ago
For the latest ones it's fair because the S is a lower tier to the X
- pfist 2y ago
  Sure, but the problem is S and X sound very similar when spoken, causing more confusion. Try clarifying which one you are talking about in a loud room at a conference.
  - 2y ago

deleted 2y ago

[deleted]

ackfoobar 2y ago

"Azure Active Directory" (now "Entra ID") and "Active Directory" caused me a great deal of confusion.

EvanAnderson 2y ago
"Active Directory" / "Active Directory Domain Service" / "Active Directory Application Mode" / "Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services" / "Azure Active Directory" / "Entra Id" / "Active Directory Federation Services" / "Active Directory Certificate Services" / "Active Directory Rights Management Services" Ugh... and don't even get my started about the pronunciation of "Azure" (or the fact that, somehow, they took a project code-named "Red Dog" and named it after the color blue. Then there's the JEt Red and Jet Blue database engines, one of which was used by Active Directory...)
- tanseydavid 2y ago
  Don't forget "Azure Active Directory B2C".
- Peanuts99 2y ago
  You're forgetting Azure Active Directory Domain Services, which is presumably now named Entra AD Domain Services which is different from Azure AD/Entra AD because it's a managed domain controller in Azure...

zaat 2y ago

You've missed Defender there Edit: you updated defender, but you missed the depth of the rabbit hole. There's defender for office 365, there's defender for IoT, for Containers, for cloud, for cloud apps, for identity. There's one for gramma too

flyingswift 2y ago

Team Foundation Server -> Visual Studio Team Services -> Azure DevOps

pjob 2y ago

One team I was on had a bug where the product name was so long that it was being truncated in the about dialog. It was something like: Microsoft Dynamics® CRM 2011 for Microsoft® Office Outlook® with Offline Access

biglyburrito 2y ago

In 2013, "Team Foundation Services" was renamed to "Visual Studio Online". In 2015, "Visual Studio Online" was renamed to "Visual Studio Team Services". In 2018, "Visual Studio Team Services" was renamed to "Azure DevOps Services".

bloaf 2y ago

Don’t forget “Windows Live Mesh/Windows Live FolderShare/Live Mesh/Windows Live Sync/Windows Live Folders/Windows Live SkyDrive/SkyDrive/OneDrive” To be fair, they have mostly settled on OneDrive after the lawsuit that forced the name change.

ptk 2y ago

It’s called “Intune” / sorry, “Microsoft Endpoint Manager” is a way better name / just kidding, it’s “Intune” again! We had you there for a second though!