So, what should be considered the greatest
operating system of all time? There is a lot of ongoing debate surrounding
this question, and you’ll get different answers from every person. But arguably the most popular consensus is
that it was Windows XP, the version of Windows released by Microsoft in 2001. It was flexible, versatile, and..just nostalgic. And then you have another vocal crowd saying
it was Windows 7, with its slick design, fast and stable environment, and its popularization
of the “search bar,” a tool most of us take for granted today. And then you have those *really* bold people
who will claim it was Windows 8.1, which further built on to all these things: The last Windows
that “valued privacy.” And these are all valid opinions to have:
but what if it goes deeper than that? What about the OS that directly made all their
respective great achievements possible? The OS that everyone seems to forget about? Of course, I am talking about Windows 2000. Although primarily marketed as the “business”
version of Windows, it was also a clear indicator that things were changing, and that Microsoft
was ready for the future. A new millennium, a new Windows. The OS was quite well received and experienced
some success during the first two years of its reign, eventually even holding majority
market share. And as great and ambitious as this all sounds,
the tale of Windows 2000 is a bit tragic in that another similarly named, Windows Millennium
Edition, was released at around the same time. Having the “greatest OS of all time” juxtaposed
with the “worst OS of all time” certainly hasn’t helped its presence in the spotlight. Although this distinction may not have confused
as many people at the time, it certainly does now in retrospect. This has caused Windows 2000’s achievements
to be overshadowed, which was further accelerated by the release of Windows XP two years later. But today, we are going to make this distinction
crystal clear by highlighting its development, the incredible features it introduced and
influenced, and give Windows 2000 the reputation it deserves. Now, if you go run on your way to the store
to buy a fresh copy of Windows 2000, it’s probably gonna empty your wallet. But good thing you have Ekster Wallets to
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shoot up…I did this for like…20 minutes yesterday. But Ekster is also really good about security,
including built-in RFID blocking technology which protects you from wireless skimming
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with Ekster wallets. Now the backstory behind the development of
Windows 2000 requires a bit of historical context to fully understand it. The 90s were an…interesting time for Microsoft
to say the least. Their popularity had exploded exponentially
since the 1980s, with the growing presence and ease of access to home computers, the
popularity of the internet, and the monster hit that was Windows 95. It was at this time Microsoft went from being
a cult following among computer nerds to a household name. But this had its disadvantages. Microsoft was well aware of their immense
power and took things too far. From attempts to restrict those who wanted
to use Netscape navigator over Internet Explorer and its strong hold on the OS market, the
public’s positive perception of Microsoft was dwindling. And it’s also at this time where Apple makes
a bit of a comeback. After a full decade of decline and even being
on the verge of bankruptcy, Steve Jobs returns to Apple and the first iMac is released. “This is iMac” [CROWD GASPING] [COMPUTER STARTUP SOUND] [APPLAUSE] Within just weeks, iMac becomes the No. 1 selling computer in America! All you had to do was plug it in with one
cable and you were on the internet within just 10-minutes! Not to mention you could pick your own color,
and the whole thing just looked like a machine from the future! This was a strong contrast to the complicated,
boring beige boxes that required a million cables to get working, a custom that was to
be expected with Windows machines. The iMac wasn’t just a utilitarian office
machine; it was also your friend! Now Microsoft’s Antitrust Case and Steve
Jobs’ return to Apple deserve to be their own separate videos, but it is worth noting
that Jobs returned because Apple acquired NeXT Computer, the company he was running
at that time. This meant that Apple now had full access
and intellectual property of NeXTSTEP, NeXT’s beloved operating system, and the foundation
of what would soon become Mac OS X. So what does this all have to do with Windows
2000? In short, Microsoft had seen better days and
Apple was on its way back to the top, and had a lot in store for the upcoming years. “You’ll notice that this scanner—woah.” [CROWD GASPING] [LAUGHING AND APPLAUSE] Now, Windows’s market share was by no means
suffering at this time, but…their most popular versions of Windows were still being built
on top of MS-DOS, an operating system from the early 1980s…yeah, it was clear that
things needed an overhaul, especially with the new millennium around the corner! I mean, those only happen like…once every
thousand years. No big deal. Microsoft needed to be forward thinking as
well. And thankfully this would not be too hard
for them. In fact, you could say that Microsoft was
preparing for the death of MS-DOS before even the release of Windows 95, with a product
known as Windows NT. Now, the development of Windows NT is quite
comprehensive and complicated, so I will keep things as simple as I can. It was essentially Microsoft’s first time
diverting from MS-DOS, as NT did not use it at all. Instead, it was based on its own proprietary
kernel: the NT kernel. Now, when I say this, I am by NO means diminishing
the incredible cultural significance Windows 95 had on the world, but it is important to
note that Windows 95, 98, 98 SE, etc. were all kind of but also not really...just dressed
up versions of MS-DOS. Windows NT on the other hand, was this new,
state-of-the-art technology for Microsoft! I mean, this was the cat’s pajamas man. The bee’s knees. In fact, there is some debate on what NT even
stands for. Microsoft developer, Mark Lucovsky, stated
that the name derives from the OS’s initial target processor, the Intel i860, which had
the codename N-Ten. Bill Gates on the other hand, gave a much
simpler answer. It stood for “New Technology.” Either way, the message was clear and Windows
had an innovative future ahead. So what did NT have to offer in comparison? Well, it was much more stable, had stronger
security, supported larger file sizes, had more efficient file management (NTFS vs. FAT),
allowed multiple programs to run at once, that’s just the TIP of the iceberg. But the first version of NT came out in 1993! So, why didn’t Microsoft have Windows 95
based on the NT Kernel and give everyone the “advanced” experience? Why have it built on this archaic MS-DOS system? Well, there’s a couple of things to consider. In 1995, MS-DOS actually wasn’t that outdated. Despite being from 1982, it was continuously
improved upon and updated, just like any other software, which allowed it to survive well
into the 90s. Also, Windows NT was primarily targeted at
businesses, and what do businesses have that your average family doesn’t? Well, lots of money. NT’s hardware requirements were pretty high
back then in comparison to MS-DOS and 9x-based Windows versions. Additionally, they took in different types
of drivers that often were not compatible with one another. So, your favorite video game that ran just
fine on Windows 95, may not work at all on Windows NT, as it was much more for work-related
activities rather than recreational ones. Not to mention that computers were still getting
used to entering households in the first place. Something like MS-DOS or 9x was more than
enough for the all-American nuclear family in 1995. But as the years went on and we began approaching
Y2K, household computers got more powerful and MS-DOS was starting to show its age, and
this was reinforced with everything else we just talked about. Perhaps it was time to bring Windows NT into
the house. Well, with the popularity of Windows 95, Microsoft
was already working on this. In 1996, they released Windows NT 4.0, which
included the Windows 95 interface, now allowing people to relive that experience and ease
of use at work. After its release, Microsoft was already working
on its next version, NT 5.0. But as all these technological breakthroughs
started happening, it was only a matter of time where everyday computers would get powerful
enough where the same version of windows could be used both at home AND at work. You no longer needed this much of a distinction. So, what’s the best way to make something
like Windows NT…more hip? Well, by following the same naming structure
as their most popular products! Not only that, by celebrating the Millennium! And so, Windows NT 5.0 was quickly renamed
to Windows 2000. By giving it a new and more appealing name
instead of just adding a new number to the name of a product from 1993, Windows 2000
gathered more eyes from the public. And following the whole NSAKey controversy
from the previous release of NT, this decision honestly could not have come at a better time,
as the NT name was kind of tarnished. Now this wasn’t a BIG part of it, but STILL,
part of it. They didn’t need to change anything technologically,
just the name. It was brilliant marketing, and to the public’s
eyes, this was a whole new product. “If you don’t like what they’re saying,
change the conversation.” And then, just like with any Windows release,
Microsoft slowly began throwing together beta versions for testing purposes, to make sure
any bugs or system issues could be caught and fixed before launch. And then on December 15, 1999, Windows 2000
was released to manufacturing and then released to the public on February 17, 2000. And just like that, Windows 2000 was met with
great praise! Many people loved how much more refined and
secured it was for the business user. But of course, it wasn’t immune to criticism
either. Many users complained about “plug-n-play”
issues, meaning that certain computer equipment was just not connecting with it properly. But keep in mind, Windows 2000 was still an
NT product, even if it didn’t say it was, and NT products had higher hardware requirements. Now, computers were considerably much more
powerful in 2000 than they were in 1995, but still, they weren’t completely out of the
woods yet. It is likely many of these plugs and play
issues arose from just setting up the wrong equipment, and if you had the wrong equipment,
the OS just wasn’t very transparent about that, and reinstalling everything was often
a pain in the neck, and much less user-friendly than it was with Windows 98! So, yeah, Windows 2000 was by no means perfect,
but the reception was still overwhelming positive, with computer scientist Abraham Silberschatz
even calling it “the most reliable, stable operating system Microsoft had ever shipped
to that point.” So, what features made Windows 2000 so special? Well, if I were to list all of them, we would
be here all day. That’s how much they improve this…bad
boy. Anyway, I’ll just list a few of the most
prominent and influential features that the OS had to offer. The first one was Windows File Protection. This was a great tool that prevents critical
system files in Windows from being overwritten by programs, whether it was a badly made program
or malware, whatever. Since it only protected *certain* file types,
it wasn’t perfect. You can thank the love-letter worm for pointing
that out to us. But still, it arguably saved millions and
millions of dollars in circumvented file corruption. Modern versions of Windows now use something
called Windows Resource Protection, which does a better job at protecting system files
while still allowing for some system customization, but Windows File Protection was the precursor
to this. Another feature was the Encrypting File System! This is pretty self-explanatory; it allows
users to encrypt and decrypt their files whenever they please, providing a whole layer of privacy
to the user and better protecting them from potential hackers. Now, this feature is not included in any “Home”
versions of Windows. In fact, with Windows XP, Microsoft intentionally
kept a lot of features out of the “Home” version because they wanted people to spend
more money on the other versions-I know. I know. But still, 2000’s introduction of this feature
brought a ton more security to succeeding Windows versions. This next feature is a bit smaller, but definitely
influential in its own right. 2000 introduced a much cleaner and more hands-on
search interface, making it both a lot easier and quicker to locate your files. XP would build directly off this search system,
which would facilitate Microsoft into eventually developing Smart Search in Windows Vista and
7. And lastly, probably the most important feature
Windows 2000 ever introduced: backward compatibility. Although it didn’t appear until Service
Pack 2, it essentially enabled users to run old versions of Windows programs that otherwise
may not be compatible on Windows 2000. It was more of an emulator rather than a native
run of the program, so it wasn’t perfect, but it was significantly better than nothing. But because 2000 was a business OS, this wouldn’t
really be appreciated until XP came out. XP improved this feature so well, it effectively
enabled the merging of the 9x and NT codebases, something Microsoft wanted to do for years,
but just didn’t have enough time to do with 2000. It wasn’t a literal merge, but it allowed
a ton of old DOS-based programs to still run on this NT version of Windows. This meant people got to continue using their
old programs while also reaping the benefits of the stable and secure NT environment. Best of both worlds: Hannah Montana. So, Windows 2000 kind of pioneered all these
incredible features that we take for granted today. It was in sort of limbo. It was advertised and built as a business
operating system yet supported a lot of recreational things, like video games. But as soon as XP came out, 2000 lost all
its majority market share to that. But why didn’t people just stick with 2000,
since it sounds like it was designed pretty similarly to XP? Well, a *small* part of it was the confusion
between 2000 and Millennium Edition. Now, for the hardcore computer geek, this
distinction was clear, they were obviously very different things. But to the everyday consumer who likely know
nothing about computers, aka, MOST people? They were pretty much the same thing. Hell, they even LOOKED identical. In fact, Microsoft had to built on their box
“built on NT technology” to help settle this confusion. And when people bought the “HOME” version
of Windows, Windows Me, and saw what a complete it was, they felt cheated. So anything affiliated with the year 2000
and Microsoft was ruined in their eyes. Now, this was not a MAJOR factor, but it was
A factor. Secondly, Windows 2000 just looked boring. It was an office OS, and it looked like one. Appearance wise, it was just a rehash of Windows
98, more of the same thing Microsoft had already been putting out. Remember what we said about the iMac? It was fun! Friendly! And Windows XP was pure eye-candy. A whole new design, warm and inviting background. If the average consumer had to choose between
these two, they are mostly likely going to choose the more modern, nicer looking one. And of course, Windows XP just built-on to
2000’s features and did it better, quite literally. The earliest beta builds of XP are just slightly
modified versions of 2000, and they just kept on changing it until they got, well, XP. So, Windows 2000 did improve a ton over the
previous NT release when it came to supporting more home-based activities. It even came with DirectX version 7.0 for
video game support. But it just didn’t do it as well as XP did. And with XP coming out just two years later,
it didn’t really have a whole lot of time to shine, making many of its achievements
kind of overshadowed, and XP just…kinda took all the credit. Windows 2000 may not be perfect, and it may
not be as well-known as the other versions of Windows, but it was the bridge that connected
the NT and 9x product lines. Even to this day, many people still swear
by it, even preferring the OS over XP or even the modern versions of Windows. While business and home versions of Windows
do still exist, they are now both built on the same kernel, making it much less annoying
to install similar software. Windows XP may have finalized that step, but
Windows 2000 made it possible. So, to Windows 2000, we know you’re there. We hear ya, and thankfully, you can’t hear
us. I’m kidding. But you know what would be a great way to
show your appreciation to Windows 2000? By supporting me on Patreon or by clicking
join next to my name on YouTube and becoming a channel member. Look, emojis! I have Paul on there now. I just need one more person to unlock George. Come on! Don’t exclude George, dammit! That’s why he almost left the Beatles for
crying out loud. Anyway, is Windows 2000 your favorite OS? Let me know your thoughts in the comments
below! A special thanks to my patrons and channel
members for making this video possible.
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