That’s not a typo. Windows 96 promised to build on the success of Windows 95, yet it never materialized as originally intended.
I only learned about this a few months ago. To me, this was an incredibly fascinating discovery and wanted to write about & share it.
No, I actually worked for Microsoft. I was 15. It was a sort of contract gig for bug hunters, especially if you were able to fix the code at all. Otherwise, you just had access to download it from Microsoft servers and submit feedback.
Back then, these betas were tested by the Microsoft user interface group, maybe that’s where I did contractor work for Longhorn. It was a very long time ago.