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| #REDIRECT ] | |||
| Windows 10 is finally here — and it’s been a long and winding road. Let’s step back for a moment and address one of the most confusing things about the latest ersion of Windows. When Microsoft announced its newest operating system last year, the surprise was not that it was coming, but that Windows would be skipping version 9 and heading straight to 10. When asked about Windows 10’s name, Microsoft never really gave a clear answer. So why, exactly, did Windows 10 get the nod instead of 9? | |||
| {{R from incorrect name}} | |||
| Version numbers, schmersion numbers | |||
| You may remember that between Windows 3 and Windows 7, Microsoft designated each version with a name instead of a number: 95, 98, NT, Me, 2000, Vista, and so on. When the company announced Windows 7, there was actually a similar amount of disbelief; after a series of named versions of Windows, it seemed odd to switch back to numbers. | |||
| Windows 8: Actually version 6.3 | |||
| Windows 8.1: Actually version 6.3, build 9600. | |||
| There’s also the fact that the name of each Windows release doesn’t actually match the real version number. For example, Windows 8.1 is actually version 6.3 of Windows. Windows 10 is version 6.4. The last time the release name actually matched the version number was the enterprise-focused Windows NT 4.0, which was released back in 1996. Windows 2000, which was called NT 5.0 during development, was actually version 5.0. Windows XP was version 5.1. Windows Vista was 6.0, Windows 7 was 6.1, Windows 8 was 6.2, and Windows 8.1 is version 6.3. | |||
| Windows RT, which only ran Metro apps, was a new and separate beast, but it still sat on top of the core Windows NT kernel. That one is dead now. | |||
| Modern versions of Windows are still based on the Vista kernel and code base — including Windows 10, which is actually Windows 6.4. There will be some confusion if (or when) we eventually reach internal version 7.0, but we’ll cross that bridge when we get there. | |||
| Alternative theories for skipping Windows 9 | |||
| An ExtremeTech reader called Benny sent us an email to say that the number 9 is considered unlucky in Japan. Microsoft has a big enough presence in Japan that it may have skipped Windows 9 to avoid any weirdness or ill will. Benny says that Trend Micro — a Japanese company — did the same thing a few years ago when it skipped version 9 of its antivirus software. | |||
| Second, someone purporting to be a Microsoft developer posted this comment on Reddit: | |||
| Reddit comment explaining why Windows 9 was skipped | |||
| As insane as that hack sounds, it’s feasible that there are still plenty of legacy Desktop apps that use this method (or something similar) to check for Windows 95 or 98. Bear in mind that this is just an example piece of code — some developers will check for the OS name (“Windows…”), some will check for the version number (as discussed in the previous section of this story), and some may use other methods entirely to find out what OS the app is running on. | |||
Revision as of 11:20, 15 March 2016
Redirect to:
- From an incorrect name: This is a redirect from an incorrect name, that serves readers as a good search term. The correct name is given by the target of the redirect.
- Pages that use this link should be updated to link directly to the target without the use of a piped link that hides the correct details.