Visual Studio: what does that mean?

Ok, so sometimes in life things are called something and they are so much a part of your life that you don't give it a second thought. Car model names are the perfect example of this. I mean wtf is a Integra? What is a Corolla, or a Prius? Stupid names indeed.

I was looking at a retail box of Visual Studio on my desk today and a thought popped into my head. What a really really stupid name Visual Studio is.

If someone told you that they used something called Visual Studio as their tool of the trade, you would think they were into digital compositing, or photography or perhaps painting. A programmers tool isn't instantly obvious from the name. I mean back in the day when we (well some of us) were poking away at Dos, then using the word Visual actually meant something, but everything is "Visual" these days. Actually Visual Studio wasn't even the original name back in 96 or 97. It was Developer Studio, which event thought it may sound like something a camera tech would use, is a little better IMHO.

It's wasted air talking about it. MS are more likely to outsource their OS operations to Apple as they are to change the name of Visual Studio, but what would you call the tool you use everyday?

I've been trying to think while I have been writing this and I couldn't honestly come up with anything good, so with tongue in cheek, and using current Microsoft naming conventions, I think the new name should be "Microsoft Windows Development Studio for Microsoft Windows and Internet Information System 2008".