>>I heard that 9 was discarded since it would cause problems for a lot of software which only checked the first digit in the version number. So Windows 9 would be "misinterpreted" as Windows 98.
>
>My son, who used to work at Microsoft, considers that explanation nonsense, since any decent software would be checking the internal version number, not the marketing name. Makes sense to me, since I don't even know how you'd get your hands on the marketing name. Think of OS()--it gives you the internal version #.

Someone still has to think of indecent software...