There’s no other explanation for their decision to replace “ribbon” – a commonly-used and -accepted term – with “Microsoft Office Fluent”, which doesn’t even refer to the menubar replacement in particular, but pretty much every interface change. The term is therefore as bubbly and meaningless as it sounds.

What was wrong with “ribbon”? It took mere seconds of looking at an example to figure out why it was named that way. I still don’t much care for the concept, but at least it had a decent name!

Adobe and Microsoft must be infecting each other with the MUST_PREFIX_EVERYTHING marketing virus, which is not only obnoxious, but also frequently misleading. E.g., Adobe Photoshop is part of Adobe Creative Suite, and Project Lightroom has been rebranded Adobe Photoshop Lightroom – but do not jump to the conclusion that the next version of Creative Suite will therefore contain Photoshop Lightroom as well, because it won’t.

Whatever happened to KISS-style marketing? Ribbon. Lightroom. Word. Not “Windows Vista Ultimate Upgrade Limited Numbered Signature Edition”. Shorter, more humane product names might even help customers actually want to – gasp – buy the software, and identify with it.