Fergie's Tech Blog

24 May 1993: Microsoft Introduces Windows NT

Windows NT is a family of operating systems produced by Microsoft, the first version of which was released in July 1993. It was originally designed to be a powerful high-level language based processor independent multiprocessing, multiuser operating system with features comparable to UNIX to complement workstation versions of Windows that were based on MS-DOS until 2001. It was the first 32 bit version of Windows. Since increases in processor performance, Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 are actually the latest versions of Windows NT, though they are not branded as such for marketing purposes.

When development started in November 1988, Windows NT (using protected mode) was to be known as OS/2 3.0, the third version of the operating system developed jointly by Microsoft and IBM. In addition to working on three versions of OS/2, Microsoft continued parallel development of the DOS-based and less resource-demanding Windows environment (using real mode). When Windows 3.0 was released in May 1990, it was so successful that Microsoft decided to change the primary application programming interface for the still-unreleased NT OS/2 (as it was then known) from an extended OS/2 API to an extended Windows API. This decision caused tension between Microsoft and IBM, and the collaboration ultimately fell apart. IBM continued OS/2 development alone, while Microsoft continued work on the newly-renamed Windows NT. Though neither operating system would be as immediately popular as Microsoft's DOS or Windows products, Windows NT would eventually be far more successful than OS/2.

posted by Fergie @ 5/23/2006 10:01:00 PM