Windows 10 will jump from 6.3 to 10.0, what about the compatibility version number?

With Windows 10, Microsoft wants more that never make a new start, and even to make slate of the past. Evidenced by a... historical detail. In addition to skip a version number to the Windows brand, the Publisher will actually make the leap to the kernel version number.

It is an ancestral oddity: the trade name and the actual number of version of Windows no longer fit since nearly 15 years. The successor to Windows NT 4.0 was indeed Windows 2000, but the latter referred to the 5.0 version number. It became bizarre when Microsoft returned to the figures for the commercial name of the operating system, i.e. when the successor of Windows Vista was both Windows 7 and Windows 6.1.

So far the list of guest operating systems (servers evicted) establishes:

Windows NT 3.1 = version 3.1

Windows NT 3.5 = version 3.5

Windows NT 4.0 = version 4.0

Windows 2000 = version 5.0

Windows XP = version 5.1 (32-bit) or 5.2 (64-bit)

Windows Vista = version 6.0

Windows 10 will jump from 6.3 to 10.0, what about the compatibility version number?

Windows 7 = version 6.1

Windows 8 = version 6.2

Windows 8.1 = version 6.3

Microsoft is thus used to increment the major number when it revolutionizes the Windows kernel, and increment only the minor number otherwise.

According to this logic the future Windows 10 should therefore have adopted the 6.4 version number. But even jumped the trademark Windows 9, Microsoft will benefit to standardize the version number, which will therefore directly from 6.3 to 10.0. It is what revealed the latest updates (builds) the Technical Preview of the operating system, then what has indirectly confirmed the editor a note regarding the Internet Explorer user agent.

There was a time where these version numbers posed problems of compatibility. At the beginning of Windows Vista in particular, many software were not working because they did not foresee a major version number greater than 5. But since Windows 7, as explained in the English-language website Ars Technica, mechanics has been reversed: the operating system launches software with the latest features if the latter claimed explicitly. In other words, a software that have not been updated for Windows 10 would launch without a problem in mode compatibility Windows 8.1 or lower.

The jump in version number may also be explained by the changes major and lead the standardization of the various branches of Windows for phones, tablets and computers.

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