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A Slightly More Detailed History of Microsoft Windows versions

I notice that often, people have a difficult time distinguishing between different versions of Microsoft Windows products Here's a brief explanation of the differences between the various versions. This is just on my experience and what's published by Microsoft; I hope someone will correct me if I'm wrong. I also have a brief comparison of Microsoft Office and Microsoft Windows products, as well as a more extensive history of Microsoft Office products.

MICROSOFT OPERATING SYSTEMS (WINDOWS)

There are three types of Microsoft Windows operating systems: Home, Professional, and Server. Most people only have experience with the Home or Professional types. IT folks get to play with the Server types. I won't get into the different flavors of Windows servers. For one thing, I don't know all the details that differentiate one from another, and for another, most people reading this won't care.

The "Home" versions are Windows 95, 98, ME, and XP Home. The "Professional" versions are Windows NT, 2000, and XP Pro. What's the difference? Well, there's three ways to define them: The obvious way, the general way, and the technical way.

• The obvious way: The Home versions are for home users, and the Professional versions are for professional (office) users. Right, very informative.
• The general way: The Home versions tend to be more suitable for typical home or single user applications: Internet, multimedia, and games. The Professional versions tend to focus more on productivity: Networking, Security, and other sensible things. Networking, in particular, is a very important distinction between Home and Professional versions. As a rule of thumb, Home versions can network, but not well; Professional versions are made specifically for networking.
• The technical way: The Home versions are designed for non-network applications and function poorly in a networked environment in regards to network security and compatibility with other operating systems and network protocols. The Professional versions are specifically designed for networking and support networking applications well. The Professional versions are also superior to the Home versions in security management. On the Home versions, security is not just simple but it's laughable; in most cases, pressing the ESC key bypasses all security checks on a Home system. (Of course, it's been noted that Microsoft doesn't exactly have the best security infrastructure built into its operating systems, but that discussion is not within the scope of this document.)

Here's a chart of the Microsoft operating systems. There are two lines charted, the Windows line and the MS-DOS line. Note that some earlier versions of Windows were actually part of MS-DOS and were not considered operating systems in their own right. For purposes of this chart, the Server versions are in with the Professional versions. The chart shows most recent to oldest operating systems.