Mary Jo Foley reposrts: With Microsoft constantly switches up codenames, it's tough to keep track of what's on and what's off. But "Fiji" is on.

As I reported a while back, "Vienna," formerly known as "Blackcomb" is officially known inside Redmond's hallowed halls as Windows 7 (or more accurately, "Windows Seven," kind of like "Oceans Eleven," according to one of my fussy sources).

Last year, I reported there was an interim Windows release on the books, code-named Fiji, that was slated to ship some time between Vista and Vienna. Others subsequently reported that Fiji was Vista Service Pack (SP) 1. Microsoft wouldn't comment either way.

Well, it turns out that Fiji is, indeed, an interim Windows release and it is not Vista SP1. Fiji is the codename for the next version of Windows Media Center, according to various sources and blog hints. And Microsoft's plan of record is to release this next Windows Media Center build "out of band," meaning in between core Windows releases.

So the Windows Media Center roadmap looks like this (courtesy of Charlie Owen, a product manager on the Media Center team):

Codename | Release Year

Freestyle | 2002

Harmony | 2003

Symphony | 2004

Emerald | 2005

Diamond | 2006 (this is the Media Center release built into Windows Vista Ultimate)

Fiji | 2007 or 2008 (?)

Send via e-mail | Submit to Digg | Add to Live Favorites