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1975: Traf-O-Data renamed Microsoft. Traffic counting ditched. Visionary. 1985: MS-DOS released. Users typed everything. Peak convenience. 1995: Windows 95 la
by nelox 9mo ago
1975: Traf-O-Data renamed Microsoft. Traffic counting ditched. Visionary.
1985: MS-DOS released. Users typed everything. Peak convenience.
1995: Windows 95 launched. Clippy forced assistance. Users thrilled.
2012: Metro interface rolled out. Tiles everywhere. Intuitive design.
2014: Windows Azure renamed Microsoft Azure. “Windows” dropped. Bold move.
2020: Office 365 renamed Microsoft 365. Bing renamed Microsoft Bing. Defender renamed Microsoft Defender. Branding masterstroke.
2022: Office brand killed after 32 years. Portal substituted. Heartwarming farewell.
2023: Bing Chat renamed Copilot. Azure AD renamed Entra ID. Creativity unleashed.
2024: Groove Music renamed endlessly. Finally axed. Customer loyalty rewarded.
2025: Microsoft 365 renamed Microsoft 365 Copilot app. Price hiked. Bargain.
2026: Copilot slapped on everything. Rebranding triumphs. Bugs eternal. Pure genius.
- rjzzleep 9mo agoGenuine question: are you German? (I approve)
- nelox 9mo agoNo, I’m not German. But danke for the approval, I’ll take it anyway.
- The_President 9mo agoCopiLot has detected you have asked about Windows Genuine Advantage in Germany language.
- hacker_homie 9mo ago2026: Copilot chat boxes everywhere, Users typed everything. Peak convenience.
- rich_sasha 9mo agoYou type the question, Copilot tells you where to click. "Bit higher, higher, no too far, down now, no, below the red line. The other red line. Yes this one... no the one you were just over".
- hulitu 9mo agoPress any key to continue, or any other key to quit.
- HugoTea 9mo ago2011: Microsoft buys Skype for $8.5 billion, rebrands Lync to Skype for Business, an incredible branding manoeuvre. 2012: Skype peer-to-peer nature and end-to-end encryption removed. 2017: Microsoft launches Teams, competes with own product after driving Skype into the ground for 6 years with encroaching advertising, removing features, and abandonment. 2025: Skype shut-down. What was the point? When MS bought Skype, they already held a majority market share in the IM market with MSN, which they also shut-down. Between 2011 and 2025 they lost almost all market share for domestic users to WhatsApp and Discord. This series of events baffles me to no end.
- comrade1234 9mo agoIf I remember correctly, they had to buy Skype twice because they didn't get everything g in the first transaction. Also, the purchase was backed by the cia through one of their companies (I don't remember if it was palantir though) to remove the end-to-end encryption.
- HugoTea 9mo agoConspiracy or not, it being CIA funded is the most plausible explanation for why they'd make such an expensive purchase and do nothing with it.
- x0x0 9mo agoI think that was ebay. They bought skype but not the p2p tech backing it; fucked the founders on earnouts; the founders refused to reup the contract; ebay was incapable of replacing the tech; and the founders got a bunch of the business back. Presided over by Meg Whitman, who appears to be profoundly incompetent, understanding neither tech nor business. The contemporary articles are mostly gone, but eg https://archive.is/4tuRg https://archive.is/4tuRg and https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2009/nov/06/skype-settlement https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2009/nov/06/skype-set...
- Maken 9mo agoDo you remember when they bought the first and largest webmail platform and did nothing with it?
- comrade1234 9mo agoMissed the renaming of Azure into... ensure? I can't remember the name even though I use it frequently and the azure links still work.
- mindcrash 9mo agoAzure Active Directory => Microsoft Entra ID (Formerly Azure Active Directory) https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/security/business/identity-access/microsoft-entra-id https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/security/business/identity-a... And yes, the latter is the complete name as seen on the web page...
- tavavex 9mo agoWhat's the point? Did someone in marketing just decide that "Active Directory" is too 90s and must be tossed out based on vibes? Entra ID sounds like something completely unrelated.
- iammjm 9mo agoActually "Azure Active Directory" was confusing in the first place, since Active Directory already existed for decades, and Azure Active Directory was not-really it's cloud-equivalent
- patmorgan23 9mo agoYes, that service was called Azure Active Directory Domain Services (now Entra ID Domain Services)
- kjellsbells 9mo agoIIRC one reason was that Azure Active Directory bore little technical relation to Active Directory and it was endlessly confusing to customers. Especially as AAD evolved into an identity system and away from a directory. Trivial example is that AAD doesnt do LDAP, unlike regular AD which was built on it. It's not surprising that some PM would keep "AD" in the name of AADto make the transition to cloud seem less scary, but after a few years its actively unhelpful as the majority of customers have made the switch to cloud based auth and identity.
- burnt-resistor 9mo agoMissing Bob. Office 97 is where Clippy came from.
- WorldMaker 9mo agoThough some of the rest of Clippy's "friends" (Lynx the cat and Rover) came from Bob and were Bob's "friends" first. Windows 2000 added Microsoft Agent which shared some characters in 2D with Office 2000 and invented a few new 3D characters (which Office never used). Windows XP added "Search Assistant" using some of the Office characters (Rover being the default search character and Lynx still hanging around as an alternative). The legacy of Bob lived on for a while. Also Microsoft Agent was a lot of fun to play with as a kid in High School. I built some wild PowerPoint Presentations scripting Agents from the Notes field.
- timbit42 9mo agoCorrection: 1975: Traf-O-Data renamed Micro-Soft. 1976-11-26: Micro-Soft renamed Microsoft.
- BonitaPersona 9mo agoSo it is indeed true that it is only Micro when it is Soft!
- vivzkestrel 9mo ago2027: microsoft windows 12 renamed to Microsoft AI OS
- Phemist 9mo agoMicrosoft aiOS
- otabdeveloper4 9mo agoNo, way too user-friendly and intuitive. Microsoft Copilot 365 OS is the way to go.
- Unai 9mo agoMicrosoft Copilot Series OS
- drannex 9mo agoThey are definitely going to call the next Windows version "Windows Copilot" or just.... Microsoft Copilot, just to make everything more confusing.
- sph 9mo agoMicrosoft The OS Formerly Known As Windows 12
- greatgib 9mo agoMicrosoft Copilot AI Desktop
- devinprater 9mo agoNah, just Microsoft Copilot. No Os.
- krieger_857 9mo agoMicrosoft 365 Windows+Copilot (Formerly Windows 12) (New)
- daemin 9mo agoYou forgot the .Net renaming in the early 2000's.
- oaiey 9mo agoWhich is the exact mistake they are repeating right now. Force one brand on everything, even if it has nothing to do with it.
- ejboy 9mo ago2026 Microsoft renamed to Cope-A-Lot
- xaxaxb 9mo ago2035: Microsoft renamed itself to 365.