Q: Why didn't Microsoft release Windows 9?

ChatGPT's A:

The reason Microsoft did not release Windows 9 is not officially stated by the company, but there are several theories and speculations about it. One of the most widely accepted theories is related to software compatibility.

Many software developers write code that includes checks for the Windows version number to determine compatibility. Some older software applications were written to check for Windows 95 and Windows 98 by looking for the "Windows 9" string in the version number. This was done to differentiate between Windows 95/98 and Windows 3.1, which was a completely different operating system.

If Microsoft were to release a version called Windows 9, it could have caused compatibility issues with these older applications that were checking for "Windows 9" in their code, potentially leading to software errors and compatibility problems.

To avoid these potential compatibility issues, Microsoft decided to skip the "Windows 9" name altogether and instead released Windows 10 as the successor to Windows 8.1. This decision allowed Microsoft to start fresh with a new naming convention and avoid any potential backward compatibility issues associated with the "Windows 9" name. However, it's important to note that this is just a theory, and Microsoft has not officially confirmed this as the reason for skipping Windows 9. The exact reason remains known only to Microsoft.

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This makes a lot of sense, thank you ChatGPT. 👍🏼