Alright to stave off the much disputed debates about Windows and why Windows 7 is being released so soon after Windows Vista here is a complete history of the Release Schedule of Windows to show that it was a fluke that XP stayed on the market as the only Microsoft Windows OS for 7 years.
Version of Windows - Release Year
Windows 1.01 - Nov 1985
Windows 2.0 - May 1988
Windows 3.0 - May 1990
Windows 3.1 - March 1992
Windows NT 3.1 - July 1993
Windows 3.5 - Sept 1994
Windows 95 - August 1995
Windows NT 4.0 - July 1996
Windows 98 - June 1998
Windows ME (Millennium Edition) - Sept 2000
Windows 2000 (AKA NT 5.0) - Feb 2000
Windows XP (AKA NT 5.1) - Oct 2001
Windows server 2003 (AKA NT 5.2) - April 2003
Windows Vista (AKA NT 6.0) - Jan 2007
Windows 7 (AKA NT 6.1) - Oct 22, 2009
Added the NT Branch line. As the early version were all DOS based and not NT based as they are today. If they fall under teh NT Family line i put the name in parenthesis since they are more commonly known by a different name.
So as you can see the release schedule of Windows is roughly 2-3 years apart. The biggest gap came between XP and Vista. There is a story behind this as well.
There was a OS in the works at the time. Codename Longhorn was the title at the time. This was going to be the next release of Windows. It was in the Beta Cycle after XP was released and it resembled XP very much till the end of its Beta cycle in 2005 when they scrapped the code and went to the current Vista Code line.
The Codename Longhorn code line ended with build 5060. After that they went with the Vista Beta cycle starting with Beta 1 (Build 5112) and with the new code line. That last build of Codename Longhorn resembled much of what Vista looks like today with Aero and everything. Before that build Codename Longhorn still resembled Windows XP with some new features.
If the code line didnt fail at that point we would have seen a new Windows OS back in 2005 or so. Which would have still been a 4 year gap between Windows releases but with the failure of the code line and that adoption of the new code line the release was again delayed. To the current Vista release date.
So as you can see the release of Windows 7 is not due to a failure of Vista. It is in fact Microsoft trying to get back to the release schedule that they previously held. A new OS every 2-3 years.
Now i have created this topic to help share this information. This was not created to cause a ruckus or to have people give their opinions as to why Vista stinks or to cause a commotion. This is a informative post to show the Release Schedule and to give insite as to why there was no Windows release between 2001 and 2007.
Every Os has their good points and their bad. Every version of Windows had things people liked about them and things they hated. Windows Vista is no different. Windows XP when it was first released did not meet with a great reception as well. It wasnt till after the release of XP SP1 that the OS started to get the reputation that it holds today. Even after the release of Vista SP1 it has yet to live up to the expectations of what XP has built up for us since we have been so dependent on it for so many years.
Version of Windows - Release Year
Windows 1.01 - Nov 1985
Windows 2.0 - May 1988
Windows 3.0 - May 1990
Windows 3.1 - March 1992
Windows NT 3.1 - July 1993
Windows 3.5 - Sept 1994
Windows 95 - August 1995
Windows NT 4.0 - July 1996
Windows 98 - June 1998
Windows ME (Millennium Edition) - Sept 2000
Windows 2000 (AKA NT 5.0) - Feb 2000
Windows XP (AKA NT 5.1) - Oct 2001
Windows server 2003 (AKA NT 5.2) - April 2003
Windows Vista (AKA NT 6.0) - Jan 2007
Windows 7 (AKA NT 6.1) - Oct 22, 2009
Added the NT Branch line. As the early version were all DOS based and not NT based as they are today. If they fall under teh NT Family line i put the name in parenthesis since they are more commonly known by a different name.
So as you can see the release schedule of Windows is roughly 2-3 years apart. The biggest gap came between XP and Vista. There is a story behind this as well.
There was a OS in the works at the time. Codename Longhorn was the title at the time. This was going to be the next release of Windows. It was in the Beta Cycle after XP was released and it resembled XP very much till the end of its Beta cycle in 2005 when they scrapped the code and went to the current Vista Code line.
The Codename Longhorn code line ended with build 5060. After that they went with the Vista Beta cycle starting with Beta 1 (Build 5112) and with the new code line. That last build of Codename Longhorn resembled much of what Vista looks like today with Aero and everything. Before that build Codename Longhorn still resembled Windows XP with some new features.
If the code line didnt fail at that point we would have seen a new Windows OS back in 2005 or so. Which would have still been a 4 year gap between Windows releases but with the failure of the code line and that adoption of the new code line the release was again delayed. To the current Vista release date.
So as you can see the release of Windows 7 is not due to a failure of Vista. It is in fact Microsoft trying to get back to the release schedule that they previously held. A new OS every 2-3 years.
Now i have created this topic to help share this information. This was not created to cause a ruckus or to have people give their opinions as to why Vista stinks or to cause a commotion. This is a informative post to show the Release Schedule and to give insite as to why there was no Windows release between 2001 and 2007.
Every Os has their good points and their bad. Every version of Windows had things people liked about them and things they hated. Windows Vista is no different. Windows XP when it was first released did not meet with a great reception as well. It wasnt till after the release of XP SP1 that the OS started to get the reputation that it holds today. Even after the release of Vista SP1 it has yet to live up to the expectations of what XP has built up for us since we have been so dependent on it for so many years.