Terry Myerson at the Windows 10 unveiling.
It’s been over a week since Microsoft took to the stage an announced their new operating system (OS) Windows 10; touting a slew of improvements to old features and a host of news ones, too.
But in that time people have been less interested in what the new OS can do and more about the choice of name: Windows 10, not the chronological choice, Windows 9.
The successor to Windows 8.1, Windows 10 “represents the first step of a whole new generation of Windows” according to a statement released by Microsoft on their website.
But as far as the choice behind the name of this new generation, mum’s the word.
Microsoft’s Executive Vice President of Operating Systems Terry Myerson has so far failed to shed light on the choice title, commenting the “breadth of the product family” justifies the moniker.
“Based on the product that’s coming and just how different our approach will be overall, it wouldn’t be right” he said.
There are a number of theories as to why Microsoft skipped the number 9, including:
- -Windows 8 didn’t so as well as Microsoft expected, selling just over 200 million copies (the number of people using Windows on a ranger of devices is 1 and a half billion
- -The number 10 sound more powerful than 9 and is easier to market.
- -The number 9 is considered unlucky in Japan, a business market Microsoft doesn’t want to lose.
While the third might sound farcical it should be noted Sony, Microsoft’s competitor in the console market, seriously considered naming the PlayStation 4 something different; In Japan the character for the numeral 4 has a resemblance to the character representing death.
A self-proclaimed developer at Microsoft posted on Reddit, saying the choice might be more functional than Microsoft is letting on.
Microsoft dev here, the internal rumours are that early testing revealed just how many third party products that had code of the form:
if(version.StartsWith(“Windows 9”))
{ /* 95 and 98 */ } else {
and that this was the pragmatic solution to avoid that.
But if it’s that simple, why not just say it?
The name ‘Windows 10’ could be a simple way of making sure no problems arise in computer and application scripts confusing the Windows that could have been with Windows 95 or 98
Whatever the reason, until Microsoft reveals more information Windows fans might have to live with Mr Myerson’s explanation that, “seven ate nine”.
The new software is set for release in late 2015.
