angelkitty

Can someone please tell me the difference between
Windows 9x/Me,
Windows NT 4.0,
Windows 2000 Professional,
Windows XP,
I understand that they are different generations but how do they differ from each other, and what did they offer in there time, and why have they changed.
Thanks.

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lucee

This should tell you more than you ever wanted to know about Microsoft's varied operating systems and their code names:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_codenames

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slashpot

There's a real long answer, but the short answer is that 9x, ME, and XP are consumer OS's, designed for the average joe or those that don't have the need to stuff around with the innards of the OS.

NT was designed for those who need to seriously adapt or play with their OS, or deploy it for strictly business use. It was highly configurable but doesn't have any pretty graphics and don't play games. NT4 and Professional are the evolution of that line.

ME was almost a stopgap between Win 98 SE and XP. It had some of the big new features of XP like system restore but stil looked like the 9x series. XP was a whole new system, with a new UI and a raft of new features. It was more stable (slightly), and very popular, in fact a hell of a lot of people still prefer it to Vista which is a great OS but is as full of bugs as it is of clever new features. It also missed out on many new innovations because they weren't ready in time.

Which leads to your last question of why they changed. There is but one reason... Can you gue$$ what that i$???

Good luck!