September 3, 2009 at 22:51Pedigree MS Windows`7
Discussing the latest operating system (OS) MS Windows 7, I suddenly found that many modern users do not see absolutely no difference between completely different generations and families of Microsoft operating systems.
It turns out that not everyone understands that the upcoming release, the newfangled MS Windows 7 OS, belongs to the MS Windows NT family of OS . This is caused by the confusion of "public names" and the unannounced numbering of versions of MS Windows NT :
Windows NT 3.1, Windows NT 4.0, Windows NT 5.0 (Windows`2000), Windows NT 5.1 (Windows`XP), Windows NT 6.0 (Windows` Vista), Windows NT 6.1 (Windows`7).
That is why I would like to share with you the knowledge of the history of the development of the Microsoft Windows OS families .
The history of the development of Windows is divided into several "groups" (individual families).
I personally think that Microsoft made a mistake when, for the sake of marketing, it merged into one name - Windows , as many as 3 completely different and separate groups of products for Personal Computers, produced for different times and peoples. Moreover, the same name refers to Mobile - Windows Mobile , and Embedded - Microsoft Embedded Windows operating systems!
For example, Apple was more honest with consumers, and everyone knows that Apple had only 2 families of Operating Systems for Personal Computers, which gradually changed one after another:
1. Apple MacOS- The classical system, with versions from 1.0 (1984) to MacOS 9.2.2 (2001);
2. Apple MacOS X - a new OS developed from NeXTstep + MacOS , running on the Darwin kernel (a system with a hybrid XNU kernel : created on the basis of the Mach microkernel and FreeBSD services ), with versions from 10.0 (2001) to 10.6 (2009) )
And Microsoft had 3 different (competing) families of Systems that were very difficult to succeed. And not all of them can be attributed to full-fledged Operating Systems, but at the same time they all belong to the Microsoft Windows category (which quite confused users).
Initially, in 1985, MS Windows 1.0 was released - it is a graphical shell (windowed environment) that worked on top of the MS-DOS operating system.
And it was the window environment that began to bear the simple name of MS Windows !!!
1. The release of the MS Windows windowing environment gave rise to a whole family of products:
- MS Windows 1.0 (1985);
- MS Windows 2.0 (1987);
- MS Windows 3.x (1990 - 1994).
2. The second family, which was already more like a full-fledged Operating System, but still requiring the use of the old MS-DOS OS, is the MS Windows 9x OS family (1995 - 2000):
- MS Windows 95(1995 - 1997);
- MS Windows 98 (1998 - 1999);
- MS Windows ME (2000).
3. A third family - this is a full-fledged operating system, which has taken many of the features and principles of the OS DEC the VMS (developed by a team led by David Cutler ( by David Cutler ), which has moved to Microsoft from DEC, where they developed the VAX and VMS) - is family of OS MS Windows NT (1993 - 2009):
- MS Windows NT 3.1 (1993);
- MS Windows NT 3.5 (1994);
- MS Windows NT 3.51 (1995);
- MS Windows NT 4.0 (1996);
- MS Windows 2000 (Windows NT 5.0 - 2000);
- MS Windows XP (Windows NT 5.1 - 2001);
- MS Windows Vista (Windows NT 6.0 - 2007);
- MS Windows 7 (Windows NT 6.1 - 2009).
A bit of history:
Numbering MS Windows NT was originally built on marketing benefits.
And the first commercial version of MS Windows NT already carried the number 3.1 (the version number of the mature product)
Although by all the rules prevailing among the Soft developers, the number of the first commercial version should have been 1.0, or at least 1.1, but not 3.1!
The NT 3.1 number appeared due to (as Microsoft explained) that at the last moment, instead of API OS / 2 2.0, the completely new Microsoft OS was integrated with the API MS-Windows 3.1, a windowed environment running on top of MS-DOS 6.0.
I still remember the release of MS Windows NT 3.1, then it was terribly raw, unfinished and terribly slow. Almost no one bought it, except for the sake of experiment.
For the most modern equipment of 1993 - intel 486DX-66 MHz, it was just not imaginable braking and it was really not possible to work on it.
In 1994-95. MS Windows NT 3.5 appeared, and soon MS Windows NT 3.51, and simultaneously with it, more or less affordable new computers with Intel Pentium-100 MHz processors appeared on the market.
And only MS Windows NT 3.51, subject to the use of the most modern equipment at that time, could really be used as an OS for work (from time to time crying and spitting on its brakes).
I personally believe that only MS Windows NT 3.51, released in 1995, could rightly carry Version 1.0, and before that, all versions of Windows NT were most likely Alfa and Beta products :)
Well, then, in 1996, it appeared MS Windows NT 4.0, which almost until 2001, some used as a working OS on their working (and not experimental as it was before with versions of the NT OS) computer. Although she had problems, the main one being poor compatibility with Software optimized for the MS Windows`9x family of OS, but it was a more stable OS.
Initially, for all the first versions of MS Windows NT, the “public number” coincides with the version number of the product, but in 2000 a real fair carousel began with the names of the MS Windows NT family of OS!
By the year 2000, Microsoft realized that the majority of users successfully used the classic OS family of MS Windows`9x, and the family of MS Windows NT fell into disgrace among the people, for their unacceptable requirements for hardware.
And Microsoft began to try to drag users, most of whom were stuck on the classic but hopeless MS Windows`98 OS, onto the new MS Windows NT OS family.
And here marketing came into play. Everything was done to ensure that users after MS Windows`98 purchased a computer with the new MS Windows`2000 OS preinstalled, which by name was a continuation of the MS Windows`9x family. But in fact, it had nothing to do with the MS Windows`9x family, and under the beautiful name was presented a new version 5.0, which MS Windows NT dislikes among the people, and still works very slowly (for 2000 hardware), especially compared to MS Windows`98.
But the debut of MS Windows 2000 failed, because the first release of MS Windows 2000 had many bugs and it was poorly compatible with software written for the MS Windows`9x family.
In 2001, there was a version of Windows NT 5.1, which began to be sold under the name MS Windows XP and gradually thanks to the successful adaptation of software to this OS, it gained popularity, in many respects due to a sharp jump in computer performance and also the fact that manufacturers began to produce drivers compatible only with MS Windows XP and not suitable for MS Windows`98.
Then everyone knows the failures that befell MS Windows Vista - the OS with the new core of MS Windows NT 6.0 - 2007.
And today in 2009, Microsoft offers us a new MS Windows 7 operating system, which in its version numbering is MS Windows NT 6.1.
That is, it is a bit updated and debugged MS Windows NT 6.0 - the same Vista :)
I think that just like when Windows XP (NT 5.1) once expected success after the unsuccessful Windows 2000 (NT 5.0), so today MS Windows 7 will expect success and popularity among the people!
But I just can’t understand why it was necessary to call MS Windows “Seventh” when the version numbering was Windows NT 6.1?
Wouldn’t it be better to save this nice name for the next one - real MS Windows NT 7.0, but now use some other name and not knock users off the pantalik :)
* “Knock off the pantalik” - confuse, confuse.
It turns out that not everyone understands that the upcoming release, the newfangled MS Windows 7 OS, belongs to the MS Windows NT family of OS . This is caused by the confusion of "public names" and the unannounced numbering of versions of MS Windows NT :
Windows NT 3.1, Windows NT 4.0, Windows NT 5.0 (Windows`2000), Windows NT 5.1 (Windows`XP), Windows NT 6.0 (Windows` Vista), Windows NT 6.1 (Windows`7).
That is why I would like to share with you the knowledge of the history of the development of the Microsoft Windows OS families .
The history of the development of Windows is divided into several "groups" (individual families).
I personally think that Microsoft made a mistake when, for the sake of marketing, it merged into one name - Windows , as many as 3 completely different and separate groups of products for Personal Computers, produced for different times and peoples. Moreover, the same name refers to Mobile - Windows Mobile , and Embedded - Microsoft Embedded Windows operating systems!
For example, Apple was more honest with consumers, and everyone knows that Apple had only 2 families of Operating Systems for Personal Computers, which gradually changed one after another:
1. Apple MacOS- The classical system, with versions from 1.0 (1984) to MacOS 9.2.2 (2001);
2. Apple MacOS X - a new OS developed from NeXTstep + MacOS , running on the Darwin kernel (a system with a hybrid XNU kernel : created on the basis of the Mach microkernel and FreeBSD services ), with versions from 10.0 (2001) to 10.6 (2009) )
And Microsoft had 3 different (competing) families of Systems that were very difficult to succeed. And not all of them can be attributed to full-fledged Operating Systems, but at the same time they all belong to the Microsoft Windows category (which quite confused users).
Initially, in 1985, MS Windows 1.0 was released - it is a graphical shell (windowed environment) that worked on top of the MS-DOS operating system.
And it was the window environment that began to bear the simple name of MS Windows !!!
1. The release of the MS Windows windowing environment gave rise to a whole family of products:
- MS Windows 1.0 (1985);
- MS Windows 2.0 (1987);
- MS Windows 3.x (1990 - 1994).
2. The second family, which was already more like a full-fledged Operating System, but still requiring the use of the old MS-DOS OS, is the MS Windows 9x OS family (1995 - 2000):
- MS Windows 95(1995 - 1997);
- MS Windows 98 (1998 - 1999);
- MS Windows ME (2000).
3. A third family - this is a full-fledged operating system, which has taken many of the features and principles of the OS DEC the VMS (developed by a team led by David Cutler ( by David Cutler ), which has moved to Microsoft from DEC, where they developed the VAX and VMS) - is family of OS MS Windows NT (1993 - 2009):
- MS Windows NT 3.1 (1993);
- MS Windows NT 3.5 (1994);
- MS Windows NT 3.51 (1995);
- MS Windows NT 4.0 (1996);
- MS Windows 2000 (Windows NT 5.0 - 2000);
- MS Windows XP (Windows NT 5.1 - 2001);
- MS Windows Vista (Windows NT 6.0 - 2007);
- MS Windows 7 (Windows NT 6.1 - 2009).
A bit of history:
Numbering MS Windows NT was originally built on marketing benefits.
And the first commercial version of MS Windows NT already carried the number 3.1 (the version number of the mature product)
Although by all the rules prevailing among the Soft developers, the number of the first commercial version should have been 1.0, or at least 1.1, but not 3.1!
The NT 3.1 number appeared due to (as Microsoft explained) that at the last moment, instead of API OS / 2 2.0, the completely new Microsoft OS was integrated with the API MS-Windows 3.1, a windowed environment running on top of MS-DOS 6.0.
I still remember the release of MS Windows NT 3.1, then it was terribly raw, unfinished and terribly slow. Almost no one bought it, except for the sake of experiment.
For the most modern equipment of 1993 - intel 486DX-66 MHz, it was just not imaginable braking and it was really not possible to work on it.
In 1994-95. MS Windows NT 3.5 appeared, and soon MS Windows NT 3.51, and simultaneously with it, more or less affordable new computers with Intel Pentium-100 MHz processors appeared on the market.
And only MS Windows NT 3.51, subject to the use of the most modern equipment at that time, could really be used as an OS for work (from time to time crying and spitting on its brakes).
I personally believe that only MS Windows NT 3.51, released in 1995, could rightly carry Version 1.0, and before that, all versions of Windows NT were most likely Alfa and Beta products :)
Well, then, in 1996, it appeared MS Windows NT 4.0, which almost until 2001, some used as a working OS on their working (and not experimental as it was before with versions of the NT OS) computer. Although she had problems, the main one being poor compatibility with Software optimized for the MS Windows`9x family of OS, but it was a more stable OS.
Initially, for all the first versions of MS Windows NT, the “public number” coincides with the version number of the product, but in 2000 a real fair carousel began with the names of the MS Windows NT family of OS!
By the year 2000, Microsoft realized that the majority of users successfully used the classic OS family of MS Windows`9x, and the family of MS Windows NT fell into disgrace among the people, for their unacceptable requirements for hardware.
And Microsoft began to try to drag users, most of whom were stuck on the classic but hopeless MS Windows`98 OS, onto the new MS Windows NT OS family.
And here marketing came into play. Everything was done to ensure that users after MS Windows`98 purchased a computer with the new MS Windows`2000 OS preinstalled, which by name was a continuation of the MS Windows`9x family. But in fact, it had nothing to do with the MS Windows`9x family, and under the beautiful name was presented a new version 5.0, which MS Windows NT dislikes among the people, and still works very slowly (for 2000 hardware), especially compared to MS Windows`98.
But the debut of MS Windows 2000 failed, because the first release of MS Windows 2000 had many bugs and it was poorly compatible with software written for the MS Windows`9x family.
In 2001, there was a version of Windows NT 5.1, which began to be sold under the name MS Windows XP and gradually thanks to the successful adaptation of software to this OS, it gained popularity, in many respects due to a sharp jump in computer performance and also the fact that manufacturers began to produce drivers compatible only with MS Windows XP and not suitable for MS Windows`98.
Then everyone knows the failures that befell MS Windows Vista - the OS with the new core of MS Windows NT 6.0 - 2007.
And today in 2009, Microsoft offers us a new MS Windows 7 operating system, which in its version numbering is MS Windows NT 6.1.
That is, it is a bit updated and debugged MS Windows NT 6.0 - the same Vista :)
I think that just like when Windows XP (NT 5.1) once expected success after the unsuccessful Windows 2000 (NT 5.0), so today MS Windows 7 will expect success and popularity among the people!
But I just can’t understand why it was necessary to call MS Windows “Seventh” when the version numbering was Windows NT 6.1?
Wouldn’t it be better to save this nice name for the next one - real MS Windows NT 7.0, but now use some other name and not knock users off the pantalik :)
* “Knock off the pantalik” - confuse, confuse.