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Windows Server 2008 R2 = Windows Server “Blackcomb”. Really?
Keep the following in mind: “7” was previously “Vienna”, “Vienna” was previously “Blackcomb”.
As you know, Microsoft recently decided to make everyone feel stupid for assuming Windows Server “7” was ever anything BUT the codename for Windows Server 2008 R2. If that’s true, then see the title to this blog entry. Up until Microsoft stated otherwise, the community’s assumption of the two being separate entities was perfectly pieced together through Microsoft’s minor/major release cycle in conjunction with a mash-up of official Windows Server presentations along the way. Being the net gopher that I am, I decided to dig up anything I could find in regards to Windows Server 2008 R2 being mentioned as a separate entity from Windows Server 7 in the same document, straight from Microsoft. Well, I finally struck gold. This discovery should make folks like MJ Foley, who felt the two were not *always* planned to be one in the same as was so confusingly-yet-authoritatively asserted by Microsoft, quite happy.
Well, there it is; “WS08 R2” (Windows Server 2008 R2) mentioned as an updated release and “Vienna” (again, formerly known as “Blackcomb,” now known as “7”) mentioned as a major release. Now, either a Microsoft employee privy to such information didn’t understand (just like most of us, apparently) that “Vienna” and Windows Server 2008 R2 were actually one in the same, or somewhere along the way, Microsoft decided to change it up. If the latter is the case, then the question is, “why?”
Is it possible that codename “Vienna” was – and still exists internally as – the codename for the next major server release as indicated by the first slide I posted above? A drastic and highly unlikely conclusion, I’m sure, but just a little observation to throw in, none-the-less.
Anyway, my bets are on Microsoft changing it up and if “Blackcomb” = “Vienna” = “7” across the board (meaning, those codenames were always designated for both client AND server), then “Blackcomb” = Windows Server 2008 R2. If that’s the case, then we may have an indication of Windows Server 2008 R2 being planned to be as significant to the server line as XP SP2 was for client. Since bits and pieces of the original “Blackcomb” vision have already come to see the light of day, does that mean “Blackcomb” will be fully realized in Windows Server 2008 R2, thus the desire to codename it, “Windows Server 7”? Regardless of what it means, I am now more curious than ever as to why they gave an update release a codename that was once clearly designated for a major release, and at that, why they’re downplaying the confusion of the community by saying, “we don’t know what you all are talking about, because it was always planned like this…”
Microsoft: Your confusion. Our laughter.
-Stephen
The thing to keep in mind is that when Microsoft changes a codename (Blackcomb -> Vienna) means that you should really throw out everything you previously heard about Blackcomb. Most of what was originally Blackcomb was subsumed into Longhorn; by the end of the Longhorn/Vista cycle, the original Blackcomb was decimated so much that it made more sense to just drop the name and start over.
And when Steve Sinofsky took over and things changed from Vienna to 7, you should construe it as throwing away anything you'd heard about Vienna and starting fresh. Even though Vienna didn't exist for very long — just during the last days pre-Sinofsky.
One problem with Longhorn is that during the "reset", they really should've changed codenames as well, because the original Longhorn was indeed scrapped, just as scrapped as Neptune/Odyssey were pre-Whistler.