Microsoft - All Genius, All the Time

David Pogue over at the Times reports that "the next version of Microsoft Windows, due at the end of 2006, is no longer named after a sheep. Instead of going by Longhorn, as it has been unofficially known, the real name will be Windows Vista." He mentions, jokingly, one wag's suggestion that the name stands for "viruses, infections, spyware, trojans and adware," but he does not note that the name is already in use by another computer app, the WebCT Vista courseware system. Nice research, Microsoft!

Microsoft may already be reaping the karmic returns for stealing another product's name: "Windows Vista (code-named Longhorn) is still nearly a year and a half away, and Microsoft has only just released the very first beta version, but guess what? Somebody's already written the first virus for it." Or maybe not.