On Friday, July 22, 2005, Microsoft officially dropped the code name of the next gen operating system called Longhorn and introduced its new name, Vista.

The often delayed and controversial operating system to replace and modernize the Windows brand was named code named Longhorn. Aimed at replacing the Window XP operating system which debuted in October of 2001, Longhorn was touted as being a major advance in operating systems. It was originally expect to debut in 2004 but the feature list and launch was revamped several times.

The new Vista Logo

With the name change to Vista, Microsoft hopes to change Longhorn’s image. With the tag-line: “Clear, Confident, Connected: Bringing clarity to your world”, Vista’s design goals include better security, news ways of organizing information and a seamless connectivity to external devices.

Microsoft went through a lengthy process of research and focus groups to come up with the new name.

A beta version of Vista is expected to be released by August 3rd, 2005. The beta release is intended for developers and IT professionals with a second, broader release, aimed at consumers sometime next year.

Additional information is available at the new Vista home page and on a press page directed towards journalists.

The new name was announced on Thursday, July 21st before about 10,000 attendees at a sales conference in Atlanta.

This story was posted on Friday, July 22nd, 2005 at 3:11 pm and is filed under Windows News. You can follow any responses to this story through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.