More fun with names from Microsoft

Microsoft sure likes to keep people confused, don’t they? Most recently, they decided to designate the next version of Windows ’10’ instead of the otherwise completely sensible ‘9’ (being as it comes after 8).

Now, there’s a new chapter in the saga of ‘what the heck should we call applications that use the goofy new Start screen in Windows?’ Originally these applications were called ‘Metro apps’, to match the name of the new UI, Metro. Then they started calling them ‘Windows 8-style apps’. Then ‘Modern apps’. Then ‘Windows Store apps’. And then ‘Universal apps’. As of today, Microsoft has changed their collective minds once again, and now these Windows applications will be known as: ‘Windows apps’.

It would be fun to tally up what is has cost Microsoft to come up with the idea of calling Windows applications ‘Windows apps’.

About jrivett

Jeff Rivett has worked with and written about computers since the early 1980s. His first computer was an Apple II+, built by his father and heavily customized. Jeff's writing appeared in Computist Magazine in the 1980s, and he created and sold a game utility (Ultimaker 2, reviewed in the December 1983 Washington Apple Pi Journal) to international markets during the same period. Proceeds from writing, software sales, and contract programming gigs paid his way through university, earning him a Bachelor of Science (Computer Science) degree at UWO. Jeff went on to work as a programmer, sysadmin, and manager in various industries. There's more on the About page, and on the Jeff Rivett Consulting site.

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