Why Windows 9 is Windows 10
Microsoft really, really wants to put some distance between their new OS release and Windows 8. In fact, the company wants to distance itself from 8 so much that it decided to skip a whole version number. There’s not going to be a Windows 9: Microsoft is going straight to 10.
What’s the logic behind going with Windows 10? It’s not as though this is the 10th major Windows build. It’s not even the 10th NT build. Obviously, it’s because of the old good-version-bad-version rhythm. The old joke was that every other version of Windows was bad. Windows XP was great, Vista was bad. Windows 7 was superb, Windows 8 was bad, and Windows 8.1 was better. Windows 9, clearly, would’ve been utter garbage, so Microsoft went straight to 10 — kind of like how construction workers used to skip the 13th floor when they built skyscrapers.
No, not really — but Microsoft is trying to signal a move in a new direction. That direction is away from products that people fund unintuitive and sometimes infuriating to use, like a touch-first interface on a non-touch computer. Instead, Microsoft is heading towards things that are familiar and make sense on the type of computer you’re using (like an OS that intelligently adapts its interface to your computer’s current configuration), and just work.
When asked about the decision to call it Windows 10, Joe Belfiore replied that “This product, when you see [it in its], fullness I think you’ll agree with us that it’s a more appropriate name.” That fullness applies to Windows Phone, too, which will see Windows 10 as its next major upgrade. Windows 10 is built for “screens from 4 to 80 inches,” according to Belfiore.
That’s nice and clear then, right? Microsoft has cranked the forget-Windows-8-inator up to 10 in order to eradicate any feelings of malice you might have had toward the Windows brand. They’ve crossed the threshold, people, into a bold new era of Windows releases.