this post was submitted on 11 Dec 2023
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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).
Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.
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I believe that's apocryphal... Some people came up with that theory on twitter, but AFAIK it's not been confirmed. It only matters in some edge cases of an edge case.
And let's be real, if backwards compatibility really mattered, they could have made the API return "Nine" or "IX" or whatever and used "9" everywhere else in the UI, marketing, packaging, whatever.
The real reason is probably the simplest and stupidest: Microsoft's marketing department got impatient and went for the big round number because 10>9. Also why NVIDIA went 9xx->10xx->20xx... bigger number = better, it's really that mind-numbingly stupid.