Microsoft eventually realized the world isn't just the Northern Hemisphere
- Reference: 1754560808
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2025/08/07/windows_naming_conventions/
- Source link:
The reason, [1]according to Chen, was that Microsoft realized calling releases "Spring" and "Fall" didn't make sense in all parts of the world. Not just the fact that "Fall" is a meaningless term in markets such as the UK, it was also that Spring in one part of the world was not necessarily Spring in another.
Chen explained that the issue came up during a meeting where Microsoft was mulling over whether it had any unconscious biases. "One of my colleagues raised his hand," he said.
[2]
"He grew up in the Southern Hemisphere, where the seasons are opposite from those in the Northern Hemisphere. He pointed out that naming the updates Spring and Fall shows a Northern Hemisphere bias and is not inclusive of our customers in the Southern Hemisphere." And so the names were changed to the far more generic H1 and H2.
[3]
[4]
The change makes a lot of sense, although calling something the "Creators Update" - as was previosuly used between 2017 and 2018 - is probably a good deal friendlier to marketers than a letter and a number.
Microsoft still also churns out updates every month, some of which are left turned off to make the lives of administrators easier.
[5]Windows 95 testing almost stalled due to cash register overflow
[6]Windows reports two CPU speeds because one would be too simple
[7]The 12 KB that Windows just can't seem to quit
[8]The passive aggression of connecting USB to PS/2
However, as announced in February 2021, Microsoft has since [9]moved away from shipping two major feature updates of Windows per annum in favor of only one in the second half of each year when the Windows verson is changed. The next should be Windows 11 25H2, expected in September or October.
Chen's story goes back to the days of Windows 10, when Microsoft was trying to show a more dynamic and exciting side. It took disasters such as the [10]document-destroying Windows 10 October 2018 Update for the company to realize that a more sober approach was needed.
[11]
Even if "the Update of the Damned" had a certain ring to it. ®
Get our [12]Tech Resources
[1] https://devblogs.microsoft.com/oldnewthing/20250805-00/?p=111435
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/oses&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2aJTNlhQsUo37S8glt1szSwAAAME&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/oses&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aJTNlhQsUo37S8glt1szSwAAAME&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/oses&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33aJTNlhQsUo37S8glt1szSwAAAME&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://www.theregister.com/2025/06/15/windows_95_testing_almost_stalled/
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2025/05/21/chen_windows_cpu_speed/
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2025/05/08/moricons_dll_raymond_chen/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2025/03/27/raymond_chen_usb/
[9] https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/deployment/update/release-cycle
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2018/10/08/microsoft_windows_10_pulled/
[11] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/oses&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aJTNlhQsUo37S8glt1szSwAAAME&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[12] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Re: Oh, whoopee doo
And the US date format! Please, ditch that, too!
Sorry to the folk in the US, but MM-DD-YYYY just makes no logical sense.
Perhaps a universal date format should be default: YYYY-MM-DD (yes, it's an option, but let's make it the Default!). That'll please some countries where that's the format used. Or DD-MM-YYYY for the rest of the world (other than the US).
Re: Oh, whoopee doo
oh the dreams we dream....
https://xkcd.com/927/
Re: Oh, whoopee doo
We are creating a new standard here. We are just trying to get Americans to adopt one of the two more reasonable standard in widespread use throughout literally everywhere else in the world.
Re: Oh, whoopee doo
Thought you were going to post this one.
[1]https://xkcd.com/1179/
The astronomy world switched over to YYYY-MM-DD quite a while ago. I appreciate the fervor of some of my fellow commentards for DD-MM-YYYY, but there are too many MM-DD-YYYY ones out there polluting the world for that to ever work well.
In communicating with English-speaking humans, I'll use 2025-Aug-07 for maximum disambiguation, but that doesn't sort correctly. [2]Mars has a time system , but no 'official' calendar yet. If it gets one, I hope the 'months' are named something like, say, Alf, Bra, Cha, Del, etc.
[1] https://xkcd.com/1179/
[2] https://www.giss.nasa.gov/tools/mars24/help/algorithm.html
Re: Oh, whoopee doo
>> I'll use 2025-Aug-07 for maximum disambiguation, but that doesn't sort correctly.
But 2025-08-07 sorts just fine, and is also unambiguous. Been using it since the previous century. Even dBASE4 had this as one of the standard date formats. It's just common sense.
Re: Oh, whoopee doo
Yes, while DD-MM-YYYY is the standard format for most of the world I wonder if the peculiar Americanism stems from the old letter writing days when many of us would date them September 11th or whatever, maybe adding the year if it wasn't a transitory document. If you follow that into numbers as we needed dates in computer records you get MM-DD-YYYY.
Of course the real international standard is YYYY-MM-DD because computers 'think' that way but humans don't. Doh!
Re: but humans don't
The number system is MSD to LSD
Pounds, (stones), ounces.
Hours, Minutes, seconds.
Degrees, minutes, seconds,
Yards, feet and inches.
Nothing odd about year, month, day.
Yes, it sorts better, but hardly unnatural and I don't think anyone uses year-day-month.
Also Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr etc only works for a minority.
While I'm at it, stop using flags to indicate language on Websites. Insulting to these and more:
Switzerland (4 languages)
Canada (more than 2)
Belgium
Austria
France
Spain (there are at least 3 languages widely spoken)
UK (four main languages)
Ireland (English, Irish, Polish, Chinese)
Malta (English, Maltese)
Brasil
And many in the USA speak Spanish.
National flags do not indicate a language.
Re: but humans don't
It's '(stone), pound, ounce'... except 'stone' varies according to what you are weighing
For live cattle it's 14lb/st but only 8lb/st once slaughtered (the butcher keeps the offal, etc, delivering a carcase weighing stone-for stone)... for glass it's only 5lb per stone
Re: stone
My mistake.
But the point is that all things we deal with often (apart from non-ISO dates) have greater on left. Dollars & Cents. The euro and cents. The Pounds, Shillings and pence gone over 50 years now.
Re: but humans don't
I have to use a website where the language is shown by a mish-mash of the UK and US flag.
Ug.
Re: but humans don't
"UK (four main languages)"
Mancunian, Geordie, Glaswegian, and Essex?
Re: Oh, whoopee doo
Perhaps a universal date format should be default: YYYY-MM-DD (yes, it's an option, but let's make it the Default!).
ISO 8601.
Re: Oh, whoopee doo
Here's another word for the list: Autumn
Re: Oh, whoopee doo
And default letter size paper.
Re: Oh, whoopee doo
That one is even worse than you imagine
If {Language == English}
then paper size == "Letter"
elseif {Language != English}
then paper size == "A4"
fi
It's hardcoded into the original postscript document definitions and everything derived from it (Which is a major pain in the arse when you're trying to manage printers)
No consideration to the vast majority of the English speaking world using A4 _AND_ chunks of the non-English speaking world using Letter - Particularly if you happen to be a Spanish-speaking USA territory such as Puerto Rico
The USA-unique focus of various "standards" is a fundamental problem that is unlikely to ever be fixed
Re: Oh, whoopee doo
Fun fact: the french had sent an envoy to the US to extoll the virtues of the metric system, I think he was even travelling with a sample meter and kilogram. However we (the fiendish British) captured the boat, and he never made it.
So we have no-one but ourselves to blame that our American cousins still count in scroats per furlong, or whatever it is.
Re: Oh, whoopee doo
On behalf of these United States, we apologize for inventing almost all the technology you use today (including PostScript and the computer it runs on). Please accept our deepest condolences for having ambiguity in dates, and feel free to establish an Important Commission to write a Letter Concerning the Matter. Meanwhile we'll be at work creating the next wave of technological progress.
This realisation came much earlier - in the mid 90s -when Microsoft changed its quarterly MSDN releases from seasons to month names (Jan, April, Jul, Oct). However there was a lot of grumbling that this removed the three month wiggle room fior delivery.
unconscious bias
Another unconscious bias that appears here in the US is that Microsoft assumes everyone lives in the Pacific timezone like they do. Windows 7 and earlier would ask you what timezone you lived in. Not anymore. Because Redmond is in the Pacific timezone, they assume you do as well.
Re: unconscious bias
Windows Server 20whatever does that as well
Going back to the main point, it obviously escaped there notice that in some parts of the world, ie between the tropics, the seasons beginning with an equinox don't really mean much at all, there being only two seasons: hot & wet, and hot & wetter.
As far as I recall, the naming of "Creators Update" in 2017 was weird, because it had bugger-all to do with creating anything. It was just confusing, like everything that falls out of Microsoft's arse.
Yes but "Half baked, poorly conceived and unwanted Update" doesn't have a friendly tone.
Oh, come on now !
Let us leave the dream...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JYqfVE-fykk&pp=ygUVc25sIHdhc2hpbmd0b25zIGRyZWFt
Commercial Agreement
Do you pay Raymond Chen for the privilege of reproducing most of his blog posts using twice as many words?
Fall == autumn
Didn't Shakespeare use Fall? But then I've only read it in the original Klingon.
Re: Fall == autumn
Shakespeare used a lot of things ;) Fall _is_ a valid English noun (it is most useful for remembering daylight savings times), but Autumn also gives you the lovely adjective "Autumnal". Well worth it IMO.
To be fair it not just Microsoft - the entire US doesn't seem to know why seasons happen - maybe its a case of if the Earth is tilted at 23.5 degrees, why don't I fall over (more often).
A certain US SaaS system we use has finally shifted to using numbers for updates based on year.
Prior to this they confused EVERYONE because they had Winter and Summer releases.
Being based in the Northern Hemisphere , I had to ask so Winter 2024 is what? January or February or do you mean December? Same problem for the Southern Hemisphere with regards to Summer.
Just think, if Microsoft had been founded a few degress to the south in the tropics, we migh have had "Windows 10 Hot", "Windows 10 Wet", "Windows 10 Dry" or maybe even "Windows 10 Monsoon". Would certainly make googling for latest release a much riskier proposition.
Much of both the northern and southern hemispheres do not have spring and autumn at all. Now that MS has become aware the southern hemisphere exists, maybe someone can tell them about the tropics.
Oh, whoopee doo
How about losing that date system and default US spelling for English speakers.