Microsoft Unveils New Operating System, Dubbed Windows 10 | Hacker News Reader

Microsoft Unveils New Operating System, Dubbed Windows 10

wired.com

61 pointsawa29 comments

So, they called the third Xbox the Xbox One, they called the ninth Windows (or, at least, the version of Windows after Windows 8) Windows 10. Lest you think it's just Microsoft, Nintendo is calling their new 3DS device "New 3DS", and this is after a minor disaster with WiiU where a lot of potential customers thought it was just a new controller for the existing Wii.

Is there some new paradigm in marketing circles where giving a product a confusing name is believed to increase sales?

Sadly, it's not new. The former Sun Microsystems was the king of this insanity. Like how Java jumped from 1.4.2 to 5, except that it was still sometimes 1.5.

Or worse, the SunOS renaming fiasco, where SunOS was also concurrently Solaris. So that SunOS 4.1.1 was also Solaris 1.0. Except that, crazily, so was SunOS 4.1.1.1.

Eventually, SunOS 4.1.4 (aka Solaris 1.1.2) was the last of the old BSD-based SunOS line and Solaris 2.0 came out, which was mostly SysV and different enough that most everybody started calling it Solaris. (Except that `uname` still reported SunOS 5, of course.)

And then everything was sane again. At least until Solaris 2.7, aka SunOS 5.7, which they started calling Solaris 7.

So, Microsoft has a ways to go before the names are completely ridiculous. (ObDisclaimer: Microsoft employee.)

Java got so bad they had a 'Java Naming Help Desk': javanaming@sun.com

> Microsoft has a ways to go before the names are completely ridiculous.

Ceasing to be meaningful is not the same as being ridiculous. Remember the Windows XP family lineup? From Starter Edition, Home, Professional, Ultimate and all the Server editions?

Apple currently takes a cake in branding mess. iPhone 6 is not called iPhone Air (like iPad-supposed-to-be-3). Watch is not called iWatch. If they want to be consistent, they would need to rename iPad to "Apple Pad" or iPhone 6 Plus to "Apple Phone Air Plus".

Windows 8.1 bumped the kernel version. Not skipping 9 is even more confusing.

Ah yes, your average Windows user will definitely intuit that. "Windows 10? What happened to Windows 9- oh they bumped the kernel version in 8.1 of course, that makes sense."

If Microsoft is targeting people who care about kernel version numbers in their marketing strategy, they're even more off base than I thought.

Haters gonna hate. That is the second time today a Windows 10 story was knocked off the front page even though it had enough karma to stay on.

Indeed, I saw several posts last night that now have disappeared.

It seems that HN does not like Windows, which is sad I think. It's a great operating system (currently running 8.1, which is very good). I'm waiting for the resizable metro-apps to be honest. Full screen just doesn't do it on my 27" screen.

Interestingly OSX Yosemite announcement on HN had almost 10X more points and comments [1]. Even more interestingly Windows has roughly 4X larger share of market than OSX at present.

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7834665

Even-numbered Windows releases tend to suck, and odd-numbered ones tend to be good. Looks like they're aiming for two bad ones in a row!

I think the rule is every other not odd-even.

Well we've never had the opportunity to test which it was.

and still dont. Windows 8.1 was a full update, it counts as the odd.

You can post this as many times as you want, it still completely misses the point.

Resizable metro app windows might actually see me use them more than the single time I have since installing Windows 8.

Someone on twitter wondered out loud how many different utilities and programs inside Windows are running a "Is Windows 9*" check. Interesting question that might explain the Windows 10 name.

If that were true it would show exactly how messed up the Windows kernel is. To drag compatibility from 1995 around is just messed up if it is linked to the "Product Name". Not the kernel version or even the working title. nope. The customer facing, cooked up by marketing, product name.

Anonymous but possible confirmation; http://www.reddit.com/r/technology/comments/2hwlrk/new_windo...

I find it interesting the note about the Mozilla HDMI stick running FirefoxOS has more upvotes than this.

also the HDMI stick is not from Mozilla but from a company called Matchstick...

HN isnt really receptive to any news coming from Microsoft.

There have been at least 3 different articles I've seen about Windows 10 on the homepage today. One about the announcement, one from the BBC, and this one from Wired. I think that's enough coverage, personally.

I agree - and I was not that much impressed by what I saw, but there are a couple million news articles about Windows 10's announcement and less than 500 about the Matchstick...

And that's not even mentioning how many of our customers run Windows (or personal tastes aside).

It looks nice and shiny, but I wonder how many new restrictions have been implemented and/or functionality removed, all in the name of "security"... to me it looks like Windows is heading quickly towards being a consumer-centric walled-garden.

This is all over the web. Why should I care that Windows 10 is named Windows 10? Why should I care about this story at all? So what? What about Windows 10? The fact of it being unveiled is not news.

It's the new version of the OS that powers a huge majority of the desktops and laptops on the planet. And, even if you don't do anything Microsoft, it's likely a majority of the visitors to your website use it as well.

It also represents an interesting take on the convergence of mouse, keyboard, and touch as opposed to trying to force touch interactions on everyone.

That Microsoft has revealed the next OS release and that the tech preview will be available tomorrow is news, as are the (however minor) bits of information about its features and the new "Insiders" program.

They may not be news that you care about, but that's a different issue.

You missed a: for me at the end there.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com