The client version of WinXP may be called WinXP, and the server version may be called Windows 2002, but as the production artwork comes together in the builds, the family designator of "2002" is starting to get foregrounded. Or alternatively, as our tech sources would have it, the marketing droids are all over the shop when it comes to artwork.

The two shots here are of build 2465, and you'll note that the system folder has it designated as Windows XP Professional Version 2002, while the Registry Editor details has sprouted a similar tagline (top left). The build 2462 tag for Registry Editor is Codename Whistler, while the tag in system properties is Windows 2000 5.01.2462.

The point worth noting here is not that Windows XP is really a 2002 product, but that Microsoft is artworking its way away from XP being a point release of Win2k and giving it the clothes of a new operating system. So the next one, whatever it is, will be designated Windows 2003 or 2004, although what it's called could be an entirely different matter. But it's not entirely beyond the bounds of possibility that Microsoft will also brand packaged versions within these families, say, doing a specific repackage for next year's Tablets. ®