Windows 10

[ordnance11]

Gues what the virtual assistant is going to be called?
Based on CNET's preview, this might be what Windows 8 should be.
__________________
Into terror!,  Into valour!
Charge ahead! No! Never turn
Yes, it's into the fire we fly
And the devil will burn!
- Scarlett Pimpernell

[Black Aeronaut]

Huh. Looks like Windows 10 is to Windows 8 what Windows 7 was to Windows Vista.

Out of curiosity, does anyone have any idea what Windows 9 was to be?

[DHBirr]

The way I heard it, they decided to skip the number 9 in order to make some kind of statement as to what a distinct leap forward this is supposed to be as compared to Windows 8.
I don't grasp the significance you see in the virtual assistant's name, ordnance11.  All that comes to my mind when I read the name given is the sword of Ogier the Dane.  What am I missing?
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Big Brother is watching you.  And damn, you are so bloody BORING.

[Black Aeronaut]

In the Microsoft/Bungee Game, Halo, Cortana is also the name of your combat AI... And she is incredibly snarktastic, whimsical, and not one to pass up a good joke. Prime example being when she got ahold of the teleportation network of the alien artifact they had crashed on, the first time she used it she puts you six feet up in the air and upside down. And she says words to the effect of, "Sorry! I may be off by just a tiny bit." Thing is, by this point in the game, you know she is better than that!

[robkelk]

Out of curiosity, does anyone have any idea what Windows 9 was to be?

I've been told with no evidence that they skipped "Windows 9" because there are still programs out there that check the version string to determine whether the computer is running "Windows N" for NT or "Windows 9" for 95 or 98. Seems a bit specious to me - there's a version number in the version string, after all - but I can imagine lazy programmers doing it that way.
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

[LynnInDenver]

robkelk wrote:

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Black Aeronaut wrote:

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Out of curiosity, does anyone have any idea what Windows 9 was to be?

I've been told with no evidence that they skipped "Windows 9" because there are still programs out there that check the version string to determine whether the computer is running "Windows N" for NT or "Windows 9" for 95 or 98. Seems a bit specious to me - there's a version number in the version string, after all - but I can imagine lazy programmers doing it that way.

I can see that myself. Rather than writing part of the "Windows 9x" check twice or more (which would be the PROPER way to have done it, but Microsoft hadn't yet shown anything other than "non-version number" versioning names, so the shortcut was likely assumed safe), just write to check up to the minimum point of the version string, and wildcard the rest. Which would have resulted in software potentially attempting to install/run that can't really do so under even Windows 7.
--

"You know how parents tell you everything's going to fine, but you know they're lying to make you feel better? Everything's going to be fine." - The Doctor

[LilFluff]

robkelk wrote:

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I've been told with no evidence that they skipped "Windows 9" because there are still programs out there that check the version string to determine whether the computer is running "Windows N" for NT or "Windows 9" for 95 or 98. Seems a bit specious to me - there's a version number in the version string, after all - but I can imagine lazy programmers doing it that way.

See also the way your browser identifies its version to Web servers. The new Spartan browser from Microsoft? "Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; WOW64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/39.0.2171.71 Safari/537.36 Edge/12.0" That Mozilla on the front? That's to tell the Web server, "No worries, I can handle newfangled html advancements like frames and inline images." (Quickly googled post on browser strings)
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Will the transhumanist future have catgirls? Does Japan still exist? Well, there is your answer.

[ordnance11]

Black Aeronaut wrote:

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In the Microsoft/Bungee Game, Halo, Cortana is also the name of your combat AI... And she is incredibly snarktastic, whimsical, and not one to pass up a good joke. Prime example being when she got ahold of the teleportation network of the alien artifact they had crashed on, the first time she used it she puts you six feet up in the air and upside down. And she says words to the effect of, "Sorry! I may be off by just a tiny bit." Thing is, by this point in the game, you know she is better than that!

Apple has Siri...Microsoft has Cortana...let the marketing games begin.
__________________
Into terror!,  Into valour!
Charge ahead! No! Never turn
Yes, it's into the fire we fly
And the devil will burn!
- Scarlett Pimpernell

[Cobalt Greywalker]

I've been seeing Windows Phone/Nokia ads on TV using that premise since Cortana was released. At least 3 months.

[Morganite]

I have software I personally use that badgers me about how I should install a "modern operating system, like Windows XP" on startup, so I have no trouble whatsoever believing the version check thing.

-Morgan.

[SkyeFire]

From the voice samples I've heard, it sounds like they might just be using the same VA who did Cortana's voice for the games. I think that might be a turn-off for Halo lovers, though -- hearing Cortana's voice speaking with Siri-style diction would just feel wrong. Cortana without snark would be like a sword without an edge.