Product naming at Microsoft has gotten so bad that even their fans are getting frustrated. Robert McLaws, a well-known developer and writer relates his frustration at Microsoft's product naming fiascos, as does the very prolific and well-respected Ed Bott, author of many books relating to Microsoft products. Others in the blogosphere are piping up all over the place to voice their displeasure.

It's gotten so bad that ever-optimistic Robert Scoble has weighed in on the subject, and quite definitely on the side of needing better product names. Interestingly, he actually got a comment on that post by David Webster, who is the guy that is ultimately responsible for Microsoft's product names. In his long and illuminating comments, David says:

Even if you're not interested in protecting the name, you still need to find a name you can safely use. This isn't a matter of "lawyers running the company".

He then goes into three paragraphs describing exactly that - the legal reasons it is problematic to choose good codenames or product names. His argument comes down to the fact that Microsoft is a large legal target, which, while true, is weak. He points to Apple's legal problems when using a codename of "Sagan" as an example of why they need to be careful.

And I think that gets right to the point. Why is Microsoft perceived as boring? Because everything they do is careful. David is right; Windows Live Mail Desktop is certainly never going to be claimed by anyone else, because the name is so godawful that nobody would should admit to having creating it.

If you have a modern Windows Mobile 5.0 device, live in the United States, and are interested in beta testing Windows Live on your mobile device, head on over to Microsoft's Connect site. There you can sign up to become a beta tester for Windows Live for Mobile by clicking on Available Programs, then logging in to your Passport account.

Windows Live for Mobile appears set to replace MSN Mobile, which currently only features support for Hotmail, MSN Messenger, and viewing MSN alerts. BetaNews has further details.

Ray Ozzie, Microsoft's acquired CTO from Groove Networks is on fire these days. Demonstrating a new concept for the web called Live Clipboard. The idea behind Live Clipboard is to maintain the structure of copied data from web to web and from web to PC. This is something you really have to visualise to understand, well I did anyway. Ray and friend's released this idea under the Creative Commons which will hopefully spur on adoption by the industry; so far Dave Winter is onboard. What I also found interesting was that all the demonstrations I've seen so far were done using Firefox. Isn't it great when we work together?

Now, it's important to note that I've never owned a single Apple product. Yet somehow Microsoft has me longing for the design simplicity inherent in Apple products. For a funny/sad illustration of this, check out this video comparing Apple and Microsoft's product packaging design ethic.

Take, for example, email. If you want an email client from Apple, your choice is, well, Mail. That's it. One choice.

Microsoft, on the other hand, just announced the release of Windows Live Mail Desktop. I know we joke about Microsoft's horrible naming practices, so there's no point pointing out this atrocity. So, let's get this straight... if you want to do email with a Microsoft product, there's Outlook, Outlook Express, Hotmail, Windows Live Mail and now Windows Live Mail Desktop. Granted some of these will be retired or merged soon, but this is verging on ridiculous.

And while I'm not a huge fan of Google's software, none of the email clients mentioned above that I've had the opportunity to use hold a candle to Gmail, and I'm willing to bet Windows Live Mail will be no different. I can tolerate text ads in a web application I'm choosing to use. I won't tolerate graphical ads in a desktop application. Yikes.

[via Robert McLaws]