It seems that Microsoft still hasn't fully decided to just "go with something" after speculation, and clarification was all but confirmed earlier this year when Microsoft Windows Chief Steven Sinofsky noted that Windows 8 was nothing but a codename.

Full article: http://www.neowin.net/news/windows-8-merely-a-codename-but-no-hints-on-the-name

well, I do not like the name of the windows 8 let something else come up with

Let's see how creative Microsoft is this time.

at this point its smarter to name it 8
as otherwise it will bring another wave of confusions

"Windows 7" was also nothing but a codename.

until they decided to also use it as the marketing name. I can't see MS changing it - Sinofsky's an Office guy, It's either "version" numbers or years. Not to mention there'll be a stronger recognition - no-one would guess that Windows Vista follows Windows XP (based on the names alone), but anyone will know that Windows 8 replaces Windows 7 as soon as they hear of it.

Thanks hounsell for the explanation ! Around when will be the earliest build stage reflects the decision of Microsoft if they decide not to use Windows 8 as a marketing name? Sorry for my bad English.

I actually like the names Windows 7 and Windows 8. To give it a silly name will ruin it in some ways I think. Apple have it good as they kept the theme alive but Microsoft have had no general theme to it.

"Windows Longhorn"

Seems to me that most Microsoft codenames have been named after a place - Chicago, Nashville, Memphis, Neptune (could be the god or the planet), Whistler, Longhorn...

I'm sorry but I have to post this.

"Neowin" "Reporter"... BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

I don't think I've actually heard anyone call them that before. I think I would call them manual news aggregators.

Windows F u k u s h i m a

Give them some credit - they sometimes make up their own news.

Like a Longhorn, when as called Windows Codename "Longhorn". But I want know when the new official name for Windows 8 will be revealed.

And Windows Triton??? The moon of Neptune...there was a plan for Triton.

Longhorn is a name of the bar (or something XD) that connects two heels in Whistler-Blackomb ski resort... Or something like that. But yeah, first they used some random stuff (Janus, Snowball, ...), then they changed to cities (Chicago, Memphis, ...) then again to random stuff and astronomy (Millennium, Neptune, ...), then to the above mentioned reference, and now they finally settled with numbers (or so it seems)...

As for Apple, I'm just gonna say wild cats are getting boring after being used all over again...

I also like the names Windows 7 and Windows 8 infact I love the name Windows 8. It is simple and tells people it is an upgrade from what they are already running. Bad move for Microsoft if they change it. Could even hurt sales a little.

They could get all of the conspiracists on board if they name it Windows 2012.

i found on pcbeta that the windows 8 name will be windows slate,, i understand that it maybe just a rumor but id rather windows slate than windows 8

As kind of an off topic comment, I wonder if Microsoft took codename inspiration from mythology. We've got Neptune (Roman) and Triton (Greek), IE's rendering engine Trident, and the fabled Windows Odyssey...

Agree, I too

The fabled Windows Odyssey. BTW, XP is from experience, which is a English word ; how about Vista? Thank you!

Spanish - "View" or "Sight". It's the same in Italian and Portuguese though, guess it has some latin root.

Thank goodness.
I never really liked the name Windows 8 though.
Didnt have that ring to it ;3

Windows Longhorn would be interesting to bring back.

I like the idea of calling it Windows 8. It shows that it's an advancement of the original software. It's kind of funny how they started off with the numbering system, then the year system, then the name system and are going back to numbers. Hopefully they don't keep regressing and we go back to command line interfaces or something.

Technically and when you look back Win 8 (Windows VNext) would be the canceled (Vienna) Blackcomb

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oLUF5pxGuHo <- What he talks about are the Foundations of Metro (Subscription, Cloud Services, especially powered by Windows Azure)

This btw http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xfdeNVtGO_A might come back in the next version we have Kinect now Speech with very high accuracy and 3D Displays too
Some stuff though was already used from this Research some of the Task Managing came with NT 6.

PS: The visual Phone Recognition he showed comes in some form of this in WP 7.5 Mango, though as we all know Google was faster here with Googles