We’ve spoken about this at length in other threads about Windows 10.
Microsoft skipped 9 because legacy coding may exist that calls “Windows 9*” to get both Windows 95 and Windows 98. Since that would also get Windows 9, they made the decision to skip it to prevent issues with legacy applications.
And yes, there are still instances of Windows 98 in use in the world.
so, there was a windows 1.0...omg they’re gonna force us all back to DOS...diabolical....