Microsoft has decided to differentiate between the version of Internet Explorer 7 that is available for Windows XP, and the version that will release with Windows Vista by calling the Vista version Internet Explorer 7+. The reason for the difference in designation stems from the fact that there are features that will be included in IE on Vista that apparently were not easy to create for XP - presumably they rely on technologies that are built in to Vista.

Of course I can't let this go by without mentioning that although this is a relatively minor example of it, this is yet another case of poor product naming. The 'plus' designation in software has had a long-standing perception of being a version of software that you pay extra for - and get extra features. In other words, a user that has IE 7 may well wonder what they can do to get IE 7+. When the answer turns out to be upgrade to Vista or buy a new PC, you can bet they won't be very impressed.

In fact, is it really necessary to differentiate the products by name? It's perfectly reasonable that in any given product, some features that might rely on the operating system might be available in the new OS but not the old one. Isn't it?