No, the title is not a typo. Microsoft has announced today they are skipping over Windows 9 and going directly to Windows 10.

Originally codenamed Windows Threshold, the new operating system essentially does away with the tiled “Metro” user interface that Microsoft had attempted to implement across its entire device line, from desktop PCs to Surface tablets and Widows Phone devices. It is such a substantial leap, according to Microsoft’s executive VP of operating systems, Terry Myerson, that the company decided it would be best to skip over Windows 9, the widely expected name for the next version.

So it sounds like Microsoft learned their lessons with Windows 8 in that consumers are still using traditional desktop/laptop PCs with mouse and keyboard. I guess Microsoft also realized that consumers weren’t going to ditch their traditional PCs and go out and buy Surface tablets. Touchscreen computers (laptop or all-in-ones) could be seen as a mid-point or a compromise to completely ditching the traditional computer and going to a Surface tablet.

The problem with these devices when they first came out was they were considerably more pricier than the traditional computers. Also, at that time there were not many applications that truly supported the touch interface. When I needed to get a new computer a couple year ago, I looked at the all-in-one PCs and while they were nice, they were much more expensive. The processing power and the on-board memory were lacking.

I’ve said it many of times, that while I am not a fan of Apple, I do like they had sense enough not to combine their desktop (OS X) and mobile (iOS) operating systems into one. Something that took Microsoft almost 2-years (Windows 8 debuted in October 2012) to realize.

“Windows 8’s focus on touch, the large start screen, the notion of apps running full-screen as they do on tablet devices…that was to salute the idea that this would be more productivity,” Belfiore added. “But we didn’t get it right .With Windows 10, we think we got it right.”

Microsoft is being hushed about a release date for Windows 10 and for that matter how upgrades are going to be handled.

via C|Net