Windows issues monthly updates, but the bigger updates happen twice a year. The one that happens in the first half of the year is called the H1 release, and the one in the second half is the H2 release. The letter H refers to “half”, which is the same pattern used by finance people to refer to the first and second halves of fiscal years. (Quarters are abbreviated Q, so Q2 means “second quarter”, for example.)
You may remember that the semiannual updates used to be called the Spring and Fall releases. For example, we had the 2017 Fall Creators Update and the 2018 Spring Update. Why the name change?
It was during an all-hands meeting that a senior executive asked if the organization had any unconscious biases. One of my colleagues raised his hand. He grew up in the Southern Hemisphere, where the seasons are opposite from those in the Northern Hemisphere. He pointed out that naming the updates Spring and Fall shows a Northern Hemisphere bias and is not inclusive of our customers in the Southern Hemisphere.
The names of the semiannual releases were changed the next day to be hemisphere-neutral.
Hi Bela (continuing this reply method, and there is advantage in avoiding deeply nested comments, but also an advantage of being able to easily see what a comment is in reply to. I guess this is example of how systems are complex)
When you say that 1 less than the approx (and now a little old estimate of Aussie pop'n) 20 million don't have a problem with this, don't care that the perception we have is that USA "in general" both doesn't know and doesn't care about the rest of the world... What are you basing that on?
I agree...
The '1 less than ... doesn't know and doesn't care' was an exaggeration used in rhetoric to emphasize one's point, called hyperbole, with no intent to be interpreted word-by-word, i.e., meaning here: 'vast majority'.
And to be more clear about what I was saying with that: just because there's a vocal, loud-mouthed minority doesn't mean it should mislead our judgment of an issue.
I remember, here in Europe some years ago when an online voting poll was organized about whether to keep the system of daylight saving time, 84% were in favor of ending it, so the EU Parliament had...
Sounds like the stupidity description is quite valid in that case. (IF it was "had to implement laws", rather than had to start the process of full consultation)
But is that actually relevant here? (how do you know what Aussies think about the topic that Raymond posted?)
(and for that EU one, what is the process you think should be used if asking people what they think is not a good enough way to find out?)
and was what I'll summarise as "I don't care about Australia (etc), there aren't many people there and they can get stuffed if this isn't...
Soon after Microsoft renamed ‘master’ repos on GitHub to ‘main’, an advertising agency I work with started to rename (I guess, automatically?) all occurrences of ‘master’ to ‘main’. That is how I came across in one of their pieces a ‘remained album’ – I had to think hard to realize it meant a ‘remastered album’
…how I hate this absurdity and virtue signaling disguised as PC, do something meaningful instead for your community, elderly, or ill!
I imagined the renaming hysteria when we colonize (oh sorry: settle down, oh sorry: Engage in consensual planetary partnership with) Mars:
“Day/Night” → Too exclusionary Earth-centric. Approved word: LCEP Light-Cycle-Experiencing Period (formerly “day”) , and DEI Darkness-Embracing Interval (formerly “night”)
“Hours/Minutes” → Based on patriarchal base-60 Babylonian system and Earth’s rotation. Approved word: ROU Rotational-Opportunity-Units (formerly “hours”)
“Weeks” → Too exclusionary Earth-centric, based on Earth’s Moon’s orbit. Approved word: Productivity Cycle
And while on Mars most of the living modules are underground and the people living there can take the word ‘windows’ as an insult/bullying Microsoft is renaming Windows to ‘Walls’
So to please 20 million Australians and some English-speaking African countries, they chose an abbreviation ‘H’ that has nothing to do with naming a season in the languages of 94% of the planet’s population. Clever!
All these PC-driven renamings are terribly embarrassing; they only draw attention to the hypocrisy behind them by ‘solving’ a non-existing problem.
Think about how acronyms like “CCTV” are being used for “China Central Television” despite not being in the English-speaking world.
it has to not name a season, because they are different in north and south.
1 and 2 however are in the same order all around the world, so for maximum clarity that is better.
and
Is Windows not used in South America?
Andrew, I can reply only to your previous comment. I guess the comment engine doesn't want us to indent the comments deeper, which makes sense.
You got me completely wrong. I am not arguing to additionally PC-please people based on their languages. On the contrary, I am just trying to argue/explain how stupid all these actions are with my example of showing how absurd it is to be proud of a courtesy made to 0.2% of this planet, while not even thinking a minute about the 94% of the people. And no, they don't ask for this - they/we are completely...
Bela I can’t reply to your reply, so am replying to myself instead.
I find it a little strange that you appear to be quite comfortable with the idea that making allowances for people having different languages is not a bad form of PC as you called this, but taking account that seasons don’t match is.
What do you have against those of us for whom it is now winter?
In South America they speak Spanish and Portuguese. I guess English is only the official language in the Falkland Islands with a population of 3,470, so I felt justified in ignoring it. And both in Spanish and Portuguese the word ‘half’ begins with the letter ‘M’ (and if they ALLEGEDLY felt insulted by ‘Fall’ and ‘Spring,’ they feel now the same with ‘H’), so that is why I disregarded South America.