After years of being Whistler, Windows becomes Windows XP
02/05/2001 9:57:00 PM MST Albuquerque, Nm
By Dustin D. Brand; Owner AMO
Windows XP is Windows Experience
Microsoft has been using code names since the beginning. Code names to programmers or software engineers like myself carry deep significance. It's no different than code names for the various government projects that go on secretly, or even publicly.
Whistler, or the Microsoft Code Name for the next Windows has been officially named Windows XP. Whistler, or Windows XP is a combination of the business Windows Operating System Windows 2000, with the consumer or home user of Windows, Windows 95, 98, ME, into 1 single code base, or as programmers term it, Kernel.
Merging the Business side of Windows and the Consumer side of Windows grew increasingly important, not only for compatibility issues, but stability. Some home users of Windows do not think it's exactly stable, but I can say that it's no fault of Microsoft's, but the home users themselves and the faulty software they insist on running.
Never Offline(SM) has no trouble running on Windows 95, 98, ME, or Windows 2000 for weeks at a time, without rebooting.
Whistler, also shares it's code name with a name given to a microwave radio signal coming from outer space, given it's name because of the sound it made. It was later discovered that this radio signal was the cause of certain types of Lightening.
From now on, Windows will be known as the Windows XP, or Experience, not Whistler.
Now a quote from Bill Gates... "The .NET platform uses XML to expand the platform from a single PC to include other PCs, servers, smart devices and Web services," Gates said. "Now, instead of having individual applications on each device, users will get a rich experience that spans all their devices. This evolution from applications to experiences starts with Windows XP and Office XP."
You can read the full Microsoft press release here:
http://microsoft.com/presspass/press/2001/Feb01/02-05NamingPR.asp