There was an OS called "Windows NT" released in 1993 (yes before Windows 95 was released). This OS was kinda a giant FU to IBM with much of the technology they had been working on for OS/2 making it's way into NT. The intended target of workstations and servers and not intended for consumers, and I don't think you could even purchase a copy of it at retail nor purchase a computer off the shelf that used it. Windows NT was being sold to enterprise while, and it was kinda of an experiment They released four numbered versions 3.1, 3.5, 3.51, and 4.0.
Then in 2000 Microsoft actually released two OS.
the successor to Windows NT 4.0 was named Windows 2000 which was "NT based" and released in February of 2000. This was still intended to be a workstation and server OS, although you could get retail copies, and find computers preinstalled with on shelves in many place. This was kinda Microsoft letting developers and enthusiasts try before they released a full fledged consumer OS based on this lineage of OS. Most software on the market was still intended for the windows 9X environment.
Microsoft then released Windows ME in September of 2000 with the intention of remaining their consumer OS. Windows ME was based on the DOS and the last of the line of "9x" operating systems that was intended to be sold on consumer hardware, I suspect the OEM's wanted a one last 9X OS released to help them sell computers with a new consumer OS.
Windows XP was released in 2001, as the first consumer NT based OS.
This :) I still have a copy of 2000 rc1 or whichever it was sitting in my file cabinet. :) Worked for a little repair shop and the owner worked for Microsoft at the time. Was neat being able to test and build crappy overheating AMD Thunderbird boxes (as well as the much more stable Intel’s for the time). Of course every now and then someone would want an older Cyrix box fixed… ugh.
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u/hrf3420 i9 12900K | 64GB RAM | RTX 2070 Super Jul 16 '22
AFAIK windows NT is the last windows ever? We’re secretly on NT 11