Go straight to 10

Microsoft wants to give back to customers the Windows they loved, so the company offered the first public peek at the next version of its flagship operating system, acknowledging that the current version veered off course and pledging to give users a voice in the development of its most famous product. The new version will be called "Windows 10," skipping a number in the company's established product-naming convention (this move is not without precedent - they skipped 91 numbers when going from Windows 3.1 to Windows 95, then two more when going from Windows 95 to Windows 98). The current version, released two years ago, is called Windows 8. Executives implied the new name symbolized a major advance. At a press event in San Francisco, Microsoft showed preliminary new features including ways to switch more easily from one computing task to another, or work in multiple applications—such as email, Web browser and Excel spreadsheet—simultaneously on one screen. The Windows "Start" menu also is getting a makeover, making it possible to search for and select desktop programs, small apps, and websites in one spot. But as long as Mac OS X is ahead of its game, I don't care about Windows.