An upcoming event to watch for this new year of 2015 is the debut of Microsoft’s newest Operating System, Windows 10. Some people aware of Windows 7 and Windows 8 may be asking “What happened to Windows 9?”
Microsoft made the decision to skip a Windows version named number nine. The answer for why is found in this faux example of the kind of thing to be found in some software’s source code: If(version.StartsWith(“Windows 9”) then version=95 {or} 98)
Translated into plain text, what that example source code tells a computer to do is: Check to see if the number that follows the name Windows is a number 9 then the version must be either Windows 95 or Windows 98. A lot of programs check to see what version of Windows it is running on, and it would not do to have some 21st century program crash because it mistakenly detected that is was running on a twenty-year-old version of Windows.
Microsoft was far-sighted enough to see this could be a problem, so there will be no future versions of Windows beginning with number nine. So with this, Windows 9 now joins the pantheon of non-existents, such as the 1983 Corvette and the 1994 World Series.
There has been a lot of talk in technical circles to the effect that Windows 10 may in fact be the end of the line when it comes to numbered release versions of the world’s most popular Operating System. Some industry pundits posit that Microsoft will follow the lead of Apple in staying with the same version number 10 for many years to come and start releasing named upgrades.
Apple released its Operating System version 8 in 1997, OS-9 in 1999 followed in 2001 by version ten (OS-X) using the Roman numeral for ten. Then for the last 14 years all of the new versions of Apple’s OS have been OS-X and identified with nicknames starting with Cheetah, Puma, Jaguar, Panther, rather than OS-11 through OS-19.
The makers of the software program Eclipse name their versions Europa, Galileo, Ganymede; after the moons of Jupiter rather than numbers. This begs the question: “What are the benefits of using names rather than version numbers?” This question resurfaces from time to time in some of the professionally oriented newsgroups I follow, and there has never been a consensus.
Codenames have a long history in the software industry. Part of their efficacy is shrouded in secrecy when it is necessary to differentiate projects and the company does not necessarily want everyone to know who is working on the next product and who might be working toward the next versions far off in the future. Naming the projects Larry, Curly and Moe is less revealing than version 9, 10 and 11.
The inherent conflict between names and numbers is that names are convenient for programmers while a product is in development, and favored by the marketing department when the new product is advertised, but that decimal version numbering is better for historical purposes. Users need version numbers in order to quickly determine they have v3.3 installed and the newest version is now v4.0. One software, Ubuntu Linux, seems to have found a good compromise using numbers together with names in alphabetical order (6.1 Edgy, 7.0 Feisty, 7.1 Gutsy, etc.).
So what is Microsoft going to do with its version 10 in the years to come? Since Apple already owns the franchise on feral felines (Tiger, Leopard, Lion, Puddytat) then I suppose Microsoft could choose names of capricious canines (Chihuahua, Dachshund, Schnauzer, Yorkie). Somehow it is difficult for me to envision someday years from now the CEO of Microsoft announcing the new version “Windows 10 Pekingese” and doing so with a straight face.
Charles Miller is a freelance computer consultant with more than 20 years IT experience and a Texan with a lifetime love for Mexico. The opinions expressed are his own. He may be contacted through his web site at SMAguru.com.