A few days ago, software giant Microsoft introduced its new operating system named Windows 10. Everyone was surprised why after Windows 8, the 9 version was skipped.
The number nine doesn’t involve any negative meaning, aside from 9 circles of Hell in Dante’s Divine Comedy, but this fact is unlikely to put consumers off buying the new OS. Previously, Microsoft claimed that its new software was so different from everything before that it was “unfair” to call it Windows 9.
Now there is another explanation for this name: Microsoft seems to be skipping Windows 9 and going straight to 10 because it fears a problem like the Y2K bug. According to one of the company developers, the early testing revealed that there are a lot of various third-party products that have the code in the form of Windows 9, which is referring to benchmark operating systems Windows 95 and Windows 98. The simplest way to avoid this was to skip the number 9 in the name of the new operating system. In short words, the problem was in a lump of short-sighted code short cut designed to differentiate between Windows 95 and 98. The latter appeared unable to understand the existence of a new Windows 9.
It may sound daft, but the developers admit that over 4,000 applications use this ancient piece of coding and there is nothing Microsoft can do with it. The problem is that Microsoft would make each of them think that the system they see is Windows 98 rather than Windows 9. But when the software fails to find the floppy drive or see a hard-drive bigger than a GB, they would pack a sad.
However, the industry observers admit that Microsoft has found an interesting way out of the problem. After all, the company may be not so excellent at software, but still good at marketing.
The number nine doesn’t involve any negative meaning, aside from 9 circles of Hell in Dante’s Divine Comedy, but this fact is unlikely to put consumers off buying the new OS. Previously, Microsoft claimed that its new software was so different from everything before that it was “unfair” to call it Windows 9.
Now there is another explanation for this name: Microsoft seems to be skipping Windows 9 and going straight to 10 because it fears a problem like the Y2K bug. According to one of the company developers, the early testing revealed that there are a lot of various third-party products that have the code in the form of Windows 9, which is referring to benchmark operating systems Windows 95 and Windows 98. The simplest way to avoid this was to skip the number 9 in the name of the new operating system. In short words, the problem was in a lump of short-sighted code short cut designed to differentiate between Windows 95 and 98. The latter appeared unable to understand the existence of a new Windows 9.
It may sound daft, but the developers admit that over 4,000 applications use this ancient piece of coding and there is nothing Microsoft can do with it. The problem is that Microsoft would make each of them think that the system they see is Windows 98 rather than Windows 9. But when the software fails to find the floppy drive or see a hard-drive bigger than a GB, they would pack a sad.
However, the industry observers admit that Microsoft has found an interesting way out of the problem. After all, the company may be not so excellent at software, but still good at marketing.
