As of noon Pacific Standard Time on Wednesday, the "Reverse WinFX" (http://www.petitiononline.com/winfx/petition.html) petition had 346 signatures.

"This decision was made without any community feedback, which is uncharacteristic of Microsoft's recent openness to community input," the petition states. The petition refers to the new naming as Net 3.0, a shortened way of noting Net Framework 3.0.

"Not only is .Net 3.0 a misnomer, it throws a wrench in the .Net Framework, likely jamming future versions. It is also a severe inconvenience to developers, especially newcomers," according to the petition. The petition's creator was identified on the document's Web page as Rei Miyasaka, who could not be reached for comment.

"We ask that this short-sighted decision be turned around before the first release of the framework for its own sake as well as the sake of developers," the petition says.

Eight reasons are cited for objecting to the change, including an argument that .Net 3.0 is a different product from .Net and that WinFX is an API and not a platform. The petition also says WinFX is a better name and the name change is confusing.