How Windows 10 may have gotten its name
-
This also dawned on me today, ios is being updated to 8.1 which is what Windows is currently at. Next year, it will be ios 9. Windows 9 would have launched next year. So if you were looking at devices and platforms, a newer tablet has a later version of a newer platform whereas Windows has been around for decades and is only just now at version 9 and mac os is basically still at mac os x.
So there could have also been the thinking of preempting apple and just jumping a version so when 2015 rolls out, the new iphone 6s will be running ios 9, android will be running at 5.1.3.2.2234.1.4 and Windows Phone will be running Windows 10, all PCs and tablets will be running Windows 10. Could be more marketing than what was realized...
-
95/98 series OS's identified themselves as version 4.* 95/98/me was only a commercial name. Win 10 will only be version 7, or maybe just 6.>3 (Win 8.1 is version 6.3), so I think this is apocryphal. Sorry I know the thread's stale, but it just caught my eye.
-
One of the most unexpected surprises to come with the Windows 10 announcement was the fact that it was called Windows 10 and not the expected Windows 9. There could be any number of reasons why this is the case, but the rumors are not just limited to the blogosphere. A redditor posting in the /r/technology subreddit and going by the screenname of
cranbourne claims to work as a developer for Microsoft and suggests that there are rumors floating around Microsoft offices too regarding the name.

According to cranbourne the issue revolved around third party code which searches for "Windows 9*" (with the star being a wildcard). The code which conducts this search is looking for Windows 95 and 98 versions. Internal testing reportedly found out that this style of code was common enough to be an issue of consideration for Microsoft and their dev team.
Rumors suggest the reason Microsoft skipped over "Windows 9" is because of Windows 95 - Neowin
I really don't believe that. Decent programs check for major and minor build numbers...
dim Winver as string
if GetVersion(1)=6 and GetVersion(2)=3 then
Winver = Windows 8.1
endif
Example of CorelDRAW 9 Script Editor