Microsoft has renamed its controversial Palladium initiative, giving it the forgettable title “Next-Generation Secure Computing Base” (NGSCB). The official reason for this is the discovery that another company had trademarked “Palladium” and Microsoft didn’t want to be seen as bullying that company. A more likely explanation is that the name “Palladium” had accumulated too many negative connotations. (Many of them were undeserved but impossible to shake nonetheless.)
The new title is so awkward that nobody outside the marketing department will ever use it. My prediction is that everyone outside Microsoft will pronounce the new acronym NGSCB like this: “pal-AY-dee-um”.
