Yesterday, I posted a slightly tongue-in-cheek blog commenting on a story from CRN Magazine that Microsoft is expected to come out with an appliance.
Turns out (at least according to Microsoft), that the rumor is totally and completely wrong.
As strange as it may seem, “Fresno” doesn’t exist. I’m not talking about the city in California which I can say unequivocally does exist since I’ve been there 🙂 but the “Windows Server appliance” that was recently referred to in a CRN article. You might not think that another “product announcement” such as this one would be a big deal around here (since we make a number of them) but this particular kind of story actually amps a lot of people in my building (which is where Windows Server development lives) especially since after checking with various people in the know it was determined that “Fresno” simply doesn’t exist. Apparently, the unnamed source’s information to the contrary is good enough so you likely won’t see a retraction.
And even more interesting, the “code name” Fresno is likely something completely different, as Susan Bradley writes:
So I’m reading the blogs tonight and see this and just about absolutely fall out of my chair….
A little background on this “so-called” Code Name Fresno… you see it does not exist..well…. honestly… it doesn’t ….but you see… for me… it does. The name “Fresno” is the name that I started calling the 15 user core Windows OS of SBS 2003…(must be a PDC, must hold FSMO roles, etc). It’s the base and foundation of SBS. If you end up buying it you usually have screwed up… I started calling that core OS as a joke….. FRESNO stands for “For REally Small NetwOrks”.. you know Fresno… known enough as a name… but a hick town name….especially since Microsoft is known for picking vastly exotic places for their beta names… If someone came into the newsgroup saying they’d bought it, I’d say “Oh you bought the Fresno version”. It was a funny way to keep the versions straight.
But I mean honestly… do you really and truly think that Microsoft would call a beta name “Fresno”…. oh how hillariously funny….I’m like OMYGOSH.. I can’t believe that my joke about the slang name for the core OS of the SBS server …. which is a joke about my own hometown got taken so seriously and so wrong.
I LIVE in Fresno… it’s my hometown… and I called that core OS the name of Fresno as a joke…..
I admit, even I was a bit baffled by this rumor. But it was such a fun story!
Oh well.
Alex