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FWIW WinNT was based on OS/2. There were 3 editions of OS/2 planned: OS/2 1.x, 16-bit, for the 80286 OS/2 2.x, 32-bit, for the 80386 OS/2 3.x, portable, for

FWIW WinNT was based on OS/2. There were 3 editions of OS/2 planned: OS/2 1.x, 16-bit, for the 80286 OS/2 2.x, 32-bit, for the 80386 OS/2 3.x, portable, for RISC and other CPU families When MS and IBM split, IBM kept 2.x and Microsoft got 3.x. It hired Dave Cutler and his team from DEC and gave them OS/2 3.x to complete. It was built on the Intel i860 RISC CPU, codenamed N-Ten. So this version was codenamed OS/2 NT. Windows 3 was a big hit and Windows 3.1 even bigger, so OS/2 NT was renamed Windows NT. Much of the world still runs it.

wil421 3y ago
There’s a fantastic interview on YouTube with Dave Cutler. It’s 3 hours long but there are a few 10 minute highlight clips on the same channel. https://youtu.be/xi1Lq79mLeE?si=Pqvm2XYwrYxNLutR https://youtu.be/xi1Lq79mLeE?si=Pqvm2XYwrYxNLutR
cmrdporcupine 3y ago
NT had an OS/2 personality but Cutler's team didn't "complete" OS/2. They built a new OS from scratch, with some inspiration from the work they had done at DEC before coming to MS. My recollection from interview was ... he didn't like it (OS/2), and built their own OS arch from scratch but with some OS/2 back-compat to fulfill contractual obligations.
- flomo 3y ago
  Correct, the NT kernel etc has nothing to do with OS/2. But they raided OS/2 for parts: LAN Manager was ported over ("Windows networking"), OS/2 1.3 personality, I think NTFS may have been based on HPFS, etc.
- sillywalk 3y ago
  Apparently heavily based on VMS[0] and MICA[1] from DEC. I believe DEC sued because of this Microsoft, but they settled out of court. [0] https://www.itprotoday.com/windows-client/windows-nt-and-vms-rest-story https://www.itprotoday.com/windows-client/windows-nt-and-vms... [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DEC_MICA https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DEC_MICA
  - cmrdporcupine 3y ago
    The joke/story is that if you increment each letter in "VMS" by one, you get WNT. That's not where the name comes from, but it's kind of funny.

wil421 3y ago

There’s a fantastic interview on YouTube with Dave Cutler. It’s 3 hours long but there are a few 10 minute highlight clips on the same channel. https://youtu.be/xi1Lq79mLeE?si=Pqvm2XYwrYxNLutR https://youtu.be/xi1Lq79mLeE?si=Pqvm2XYwrYxNLutR

cmrdporcupine 3y ago

NT had an OS/2 personality but Cutler's team didn't "complete" OS/2. They built a new OS from scratch, with some inspiration from the work they had done at DEC before coming to MS. My recollection from interview was ... he didn't like it (OS/2), and built their own OS arch from scratch but with some OS/2 back-compat to fulfill contractual obligations.

flomo 3y ago
Correct, the NT kernel etc has nothing to do with OS/2. But they raided OS/2 for parts: LAN Manager was ported over ("Windows networking"), OS/2 1.3 personality, I think NTFS may have been based on HPFS, etc.
sillywalk 3y ago
Apparently heavily based on VMS[0] and MICA[1] from DEC. I believe DEC sued because of this Microsoft, but they settled out of court. [0] https://www.itprotoday.com/windows-client/windows-nt-and-vms-rest-story https://www.itprotoday.com/windows-client/windows-nt-and-vms... [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DEC_MICA https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DEC_MICA
- cmrdporcupine 3y ago
  The joke/story is that if you increment each letter in "VMS" by one, you get WNT. That's not where the name comes from, but it's kind of funny.