• T. Hex@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    2 years ago

    Maybe it’s a myth, but it sure sounds plausible. The software that checks the “Windows 9” substring doesn’t even have to exist for this to be reason they chose to skip to version 10 — they just had to be concerned that it might exist.

    Sure, maybe there’s no C function that returns the string, but there’s a ver command. It would be trivial to shell out to the command. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ver_(command)

    This doesn’t prove anything, but there are a TON of examples of code that checks for the substring. It’s not hard to imagine that code written circa 2000 would not be future proof. https://sourcegraph.com/search?q=context:global+“\“windows+9\””&patternType=keyword&sm=0

    • dan@upvote.au
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      2 years ago

      but there are a TON of examples of code that checks for the substring

      oh

      oh no

      There’s code in the JDK that does that??

      I really wish I didn’t see that.

        • dan@upvote.au
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          2 years ago

          I’ve been a software developer for 20 years and this comment is too real. Some days I’m amazed that any software even works at all.