I think what we're saying maybe consistent with each other. Let me point to one of the records at the time: http://www.winsupersite.com/article/reviews/the-ro

I think what we're saying maybe consistent with each other. Let me point to one of the records at the time: http://www.winsupersite.com/article/reviews/the-road-to-gold-the-development-of-windows-me.aspx http://www.winsupersite.com/article/reviews/the-road-to-gold... A couple of key quotes: "Previously, the Consumer Windows team had been lumped under Jim Allchin's Windows team, which was furiously working to complete Windows 2000, the company's enterprise OS product. But when it became obvious that a consumer version of Windows 2000 was out of the question, the stagnating Consumer Windows team finally got its wish: To create a final release in the Windows 9x product line" and "Just a year earlier, at the 1998 version of WinHEC, Bill Gates had announced that Windows 98 would be the end of the line." There wasn't supposed to be a Win ME, and there shouldn't have been. Win 2000 was supposed to be the merge point of consumer and enterprise, but wasn't ready. Maybe it was Silverberg that led the consumer team to create WinME, I don't know. What I do know is that most of the talent was working on the NT side by that point (not to say that the ME folks were hacks, but they weren't the strongest OS team MS had).