Throughout its operating system releases, Microsoft initially followed a nomenclature that made sense. However, there were some cases where the sequence of releases chosen did not follow a logic, such as, for example, in Windows 95, in Windows 2000 and so on, until you reach the release of Windows 8 and, out of nowhere, skip Windows 9 and go to Windows 10. At least, following these jumps, Microsoft released Windows 11 and, it seems, will release Windows 12 (check out everything we know so far regarding it here).
While there is no official explanation for why Microsoft left Windows 8, skipped Windows 9 and went to Windows 10, there are a few answers scattered around the internet. Some even make a lot of sense.
Why did Microsoft decide to skip Windows 9?
At the time Windows 10 was released, there was a lot of speculation as to why Microsoft decided to skip Windows 9. One of the most accepted is due to the fact that several older programs use the name “Windows 9” in their code to refer to Windows 95 and Windows 98. So, to avoid a big problem, the company may have decided to call its new operating system “Windows 10”. This theory was mentioned on the “technology” subreddit and you can check out the post below.
Another possible reason for choosing the name “Windows 10” instead of “Windows 9” is simply marketing. According to Mary Jo Foley, popular Microsoft product expert, “Windows 10” was chosen because the company wanted to show that its operating system would undergo a major update.
Microsoft opted for Windows 10 because it wanted to signify that the next Windows release would be the last “big” Windows update.
As you already know, Windows 10 is not the latest operating system released by Microsoft. The company released Windows 11 at the end of 2021. You can check out our article on how many versions of Windows have already been released since the beginning.
In the end, was it worth not releasing Windows 9?
No doubt Windows 10 was a great success in the world, even with several bugs and improvements to be implemented. If you look at Microsoft’s market share data for operating systems that we showed in our article regarding which Windows is most used in the world, you will see the rapid evolution that the operating system has had since it was launched compared to others released previously.
In 2018, Windows 10 overtook Windows 7 with nearly 43% share of Microsoft’s operating system market. Windows 10’s peak share, considering Microsoft’s main operating systems, was in December 2021, where the OS hit 82.49%. Even in February 2023, Windows 10 was still at 72.18% while Windows 11 was only at 18.66%.
