Companies and brands are always free to follow their own naming conventions but for the most part there is a general order that works for everybody: chronological. This means names follow a certain progression where numbers are used in their proper order. This is why when a successor to Windows 8 was announced, it was easy to assume that it was going to be Windows 9.
As it turns out, most people assumed wrong. After all, who would've guessed Microsoft's upcoming operating system would be named Windows 10, right? It's not that far of a jump from Windows 8 but it was still unexpected.
Why Windows 10 then? A Reddit user has a plausible explanation.
Claiming to be a Microsoft dev, Reddit user cranbourne explains that Windows 10 is named as such because of lazy coding in the past.
An easy way to check for the Windows version that a user is running is to simply read into the first bit of the name an OS is using as a means of identifying itself. This means that if the first bit is read as "Windows 9," then it means that the OS being identified must either be Windows 95 or Windows 98.
That is, unless, Windows 9 exists.
It's a lot like the Y2K problem before, with programmers not bothering to think far ahead enough to consider even the slightest possibility that another "Windows 9x" version would be released.
While this is unlikely the real reason why Microsoft opted to name its newest OS Windows 10, the coding problem brought to light by cranbourne is definitely real.
To put matters to rest, Microsoft finally broke its silence, revealing an explanation for their name choice.
So what's the reason?
"Windows 10 carries Windows forward into a new way of doing things. It is not an incremental change, but a new Windows that will empower the next billion users," said a spokesperson for the company.
Not too helpful, actually. Compared to that, Redditor cranbourne's reasoning holds so much more weight.
But whatever name it takes on, the truth remains that Windows 10 is something to be excited about as it finally brings many of the features users have been clamoring for since Windows 8 was released, like the Start menu and desktop apps in windowed view.
A technical preview of Windows 10 may be downloaded by signing up for the Windows Insider Program.
