Where is windows 9?

Now Most of you wondered, where is wondows 9? i mean, why the heck would windows jump over windows 9 and release windows 10? im one of you, i as well taught that this was ridiculous, well i still do think it is, haha, well Ultimately, Windows 10 is just a name. Windows 9 probably would’ve made more sense — and I think it’s going to cause a lot of grief with novice users who just don’t understand what happened to Windows 9 — but Windows 10 isn’t any more right or wrong than calling Vista’s successor Windows 7.

Why Windows 10 wasn’t called Windows One: “It has been done before” (by Bill Gates)

A better question to ask now, though, is: Why did Microsoft call it Windows 10 specifically, and not something else? During the unveil event (video embedded above) Myerson gives us a few clues. Starting at around the 2:10 mark, he says: “We know, based on the product that’s coming, and just how different our approach will be overall, it wouldn’t be right to call it Windows 9.” He then talks about how Windows One would make sense with Xbox One, OneDrive, and OneNote, “but unfortunately Windows 1 has been done by the giants that came before us.” And so it seems the only other viable option was Windows 10.

Microsoft’s seemingly arbitrary choice of Windows 10 is an interesting one. It is clearly a strong version number — and it’s also a neat way of distancing it from Windows 8, which Microsoft really wants to brush under the carpet. In fact, this might even be the same trick that Microsoft used to make us forget about Vista: “With a name like Windows 7, it must be very different from Vista…”

Apple’s OS X has been OS X for 13 years now — and shows no sign of being retired

What about any similarity to Apple’s Mac OS X? Apple did a similar trick: Its operating systems steadily incremented through System 1-7, then switched to Mac OS 8 and 9, and when it got to OS 10 (X) in 2001 it stopped. Given how Windows 10 is meant to be a single platform for just about every form factor, plus the massive weight and importance that Microsoft is lending to this release, I wouldn’t be surprised if it sticks around for a long time. I wouldn’t be surprised if future versions of Windows — at least for the next few years — are 10, 10.1, 10.2, 10.3, etc. I don’t think Microsoft is intentionally aping Apple with Windows 10, but I’m sure the marketing department is aware of both the positive and negative repercussions of wanting to ride on Apple’s coattails.

So, there you have it: Windows 10 is called Windows 10 because Microsoft says so. I personally think just “Windows” or “Windows X” would’ve been better — but I guess the former got voted down, and the latter is impossible due to Apple’s own OS X