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Windows NT 3.1
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Windows XP
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Windows ME
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Windows 98
EXPLANATION
In May 1990, Microsoft released
Windows 3.0, a new version of its MS-DOS-based
Windows desktop environment.
Windows 3.0 sold well, and the resulting shift in Microsoft's marketing
strategy eroded their partnership with IBM—who wanted Microsoft to
concentrate solely on developing OS/2 as its primary platform as opposed
to building their future business around Windows.
[20]
Users and developers were unsure of whether to adopt Windows or OS/2
due to these uncertainties (a situation magnified by the fact that the
operating systems were incompatible with each other at the
API level), while Microsoft's resources were also being drained by the simultaneous development of multiple operating systems.
[21][22]
In August 1990, as a response to the popularity of Windows 3.0, the NT
OS/2 team decided to re-work the operating system to use an extended
32-bit port of the
Windows API known as Win32. Win32 maintained the familiar structure of the
16-bit
APIs used by Windows, which would allow developers to easily adapt
their software for the new platform while maintaining a level of
compatibility with existing software for Windows.
[23] With the shift to a Windows-like architecture, the operating system's
shell was also changed from OS/2's
Presentation Manager to Windows'
Program Manager.
[24][25][26]
Due to these changes, NT was not presented at COMDEX 1990 as was originally planned.
[24] Neither the general public nor IBM knew about the transformation of NT OS/2 into
Windows NT at the time.
[27]
Although the companies did agree to a revised partnership where IBM and
Microsoft would alternate developing major versions of OS/2 instead of
collaborating on each version,
[28]
IBM eventually learned of Microsoft's Windows NT plans in January 1991,
and immediately ended the OS/2 partnership. IBM would solely develop
OS/2 2.0 (as was planned under the amended version) and all future
versions, without any further involvement from Microsoft.
[23][29]
In October 1991, Windows NT received its first public
demonstration at COMDEX. In an effort to ensure software taking
advantage of Windows NT was available upon its release (scheduled for
late-1992), Microsoft also distributed a 32-bit
software development kit to selected developers in attendance.
[30][31] The demonstration was positively received;
PC Magazine
called Windows NT "the modern reinvention of the operating system", but
at the same time claimed that it was unlikely that the promised
backward compatibility would be kept for the final release.
[32][33] In March 1992, Microsoft also released
Win32s, which would allow
Windows 3.1 to have partial compatibility with Windows NT programs for the purposes of developing software optimized for the platform.
[34]
At Microsoft's
Win32 Professional Developers Conference
in June 1992, Windows NT was demonstrated running on x86 and MIPS
processors, while a beta version of Windows NT and an updated
development kit were also made available.
[35] Concurrently, Microsoft announced a new version of its
SQL Server product for Windows NT; Unix vendors feared that the software could be a
killer app that would affect the market share of Unix systems.
[36][37] Concerns were also raised over NT's memory usage; while most computers of the era shipped with 4 megabytes of
RAM,
16 MB was recommended for NTs. Due to the high cost of RAM at the time,
critics thought that its high system requirements could affect the
sales and adoption of Windows NT. Steps were taken to reduce its memory
usage through methods such as
paging.
[38][39][40][41]
Microsoft began releasing public beta builds of NT in October
1992, and a month later at COMDEX, a presentation focusing on
third-party software for Windows NT was held.
[42][43][44] The final pre-release version of NT was released in March 1993, alongside the unveiling of the server version,
Windows NT with LAN Manager.
Although its stability and performance had improved, there were still
fears that the OS could be released in an unfinished state or delayed
further into 1993.
[45][46]
