Windows NT after Windows 9x

Windows NT 4.0 was the last "NT"-labeled operating system, but the NT naming convention is still used - 5.0, 6.0, 10.0, etc.

Mike Meyers says

Windows 2000 was the first step toward changing this mess. It was based on Windows NT...

and TechTarget

... NT's technology is the base for the Microsoft successor operating system, Windows 2000...

but Wikipedia shows for the current state of the NT line as current and the latest preview as May 29, 2015.

Are Windows 2000 and onward considered a part of the NT lineup or is the naming convention just used to refer to the operating systems internally?

QMord

Posted 2015-06-21T22:51:10.830

Reputation: 666

Answers

Although the official names are Windows 2000/XP/Vista/7/8/8.1, the Windows NT "version" of these releases are 5.0 (Windows 2000), 5.1 (Windows XP), 6.0 (Windows Vista), 6.1 (Windows 7), and 6.2/6.3 (Windows 8/8.1). Windows NT is no longer a part of the actual product names, and is indeed only used to refer/identify operating systems internally.

This table on Wikipedia helps to summarize the Windows NT version of various Windows releases. Each OS is based off of Windows NT, where Windows 2000 is the first release to drop NT from the product name. Note that the Windows (kernel) version convention, is changing with the release of Windows 10, where the version number will jump from 6.3 (Windows 8.1) to 10.0 (Windows 10), breaking the conventional versioning/numbering scheme for the Windows NT-family.

Internally, as there were two "branches" of Windows development - one following the Win9x/DOS system (16 and 32-bit), and one following the WinNT system (true 32-bit, and later, 64-bit), the eventual goal was to merge both into a unified codebase. The architecture of Win9x made it a difficult task; although both implemented the Win32 API, the actual merger of the NT (commercial) and 9x (consumer) product lines was delayed until the release of Windows XP.

Breakthrough

Posted 2015-06-21T22:51:10.830

Reputation: 32 927

So they continued the NT naming convention because the following operating systems were based off of NT? – QMord – 2015-06-22T18:05:09.080

1@QMord In a sense, yes. The NT convention stuck because that's what the operating system's code was based off of; while the actual product name itself was Windows 2000/XP, internally, they were versions 5.0/5.1 of the Windows NT codebase (after the remainder of the Win9x systems were merged into the NT codebase). I've updated the answer to better reflect this, and provided some links to additional material on the subject. – Breakthrough – 2015-06-23T15:04:50.480

Yes, all newer Windows version (XP, Vista, 7, 8.x and now Windows 10) are based on the NT line. Servers were always NT line.

The older 9x line was ended with Windows ME.

magicandre1981

Posted 2015-06-21T22:51:10.830

Reputation: 86 560

The split happened all the way back with Windows 3.1. – Louis – 2015-06-22T04:26:59.587

1@Louis not exactly. Window 3.11, 95, 98 and ME have 32bit technology backported from NT but are but are well distinct from NT lineage – edc65 – 2015-06-22T12:33:03.097

@edc There was a separate NT version of 3.1: "The architecture of Windows NT 3.1 was designed from scratch, and was originally intended to be a rewrite of the OS/2 operating system that Microsoft had co-developed with IBM" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_NT_3.1

– Louis – 2015-06-23T06:28:46.933

2Windows NT 3.1 and Windows 3,1 are totally distinct products, just similar in UI but deeply different in the core – edc65 – 2015-06-23T06:34:44.760

1@edc65 I was saying that NT began during the era of Windows 3.1 under the name NT 3.1, nothing more than that. NT 3.1 is part of the NT lineage. – Louis – 2015-06-24T02:43:52.237

@Breakthrough I'm not sure what that has to do with NT 3.1 not belonging to the NT family. See the first two comments on this answer, and I think that's where the confusion over what we're talking about starts. – Louis – 2015-06-24T02:44:19.703

@Louis Ah I see what you meant now, my apologies; I thought by "separate NT version of 3.1" you meant an operating system based on 3.1. Indeed, there is Windows 3.1 and Windows NT version 3.1. Let's delete these comments to clean up a bit. – Breakthrough – 2015-06-24T02:54:11.997