After a long string of naming experiments, Microsoft seems to have decided to drop the .Net name from their upcoming server. In August 2001, the server (originally code-named Whistler) was named Windows .Net Server.

Now they have settled on Windows Server 2003, dropping .Net altogether. Microsoft confirms that this is a change that is expected to take place in many other upcoming products as well.

Analysts approve. "They've had a lot of problem explaining .Net. Putting .Net on products in a willy-nilly way only exacerbates the problem," David Smith says, noting it's only taken MS 2.5 years to come up with a rational way to explain .Net.

http://news.com.com/2100-1001-979878.html?tag=fd_top

It should be named "Windows NT 6.0". I think my .NET RC1 was version 5.9xxx, or something like that!