WI: a second edition of Windows XP based on Windows Server 2003

I was thinking, why did Microsoft did not make Longhorn the consumer version of Windows Server 2003, since Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 are of the different codebases, for me a minor release of Longhorn as the second edition Windows XP would signal the expansion of Windows XP into the x64 platform..

after XP we would have Windows Vista/7 analogue, Windows 6, that is a mix of Windows 7 and Windows Vista..
 
Would this XP_x64 still talk to x16 software ?? IIRC, Win 8 x64 just needed a flag setting at 'compile' stage but, in their desire to kill XP, Microsoft didn't...

I had to trash a bunch of legacy stuff with x16 drivers. Worse, our mini-CCTV system and several early digital cameras recorded on an x16 SD card. XP happily read it, Win 8 would NOT. Eventually, I tried it in the card slots of my old HP 6280 all-in-one printer, and *that* worked...
 
Windows XP-64 did exist, and it was based on the Server 2003 codebase. It generally failed (though I ran it for years) due to a lack of driver support, which also plagued Vista-64.

None of the 64-bit OSen support 16-bit applications, as you can no longer drop into the emulated 16-bit mode on the CPU from 64-bit Long Mode. Instead, you drop into a 32-bit 'Emulated' Protected Mode. When an x86 CPU is in 32-bit Protected Mode, you can tell it to switch to a mode where it operates as though it is in 16-bit mode. You cannot do this from 64-bit Long Mode. 16-bit support was not dropped due to a business decision but rather technical reasons - even current 32-bit versions of Windows can run 16-bit programs, just as current 64-bit versions of Windows can run 32-bit programs. It would theoretically be possible to integrate full emulation (like Apple did when switching to the PPC, where they also supported 68K binaries) but that was likely an expense that they didn't want to deal with, and would certainly not support 16-bit drivers.
 

Asami

Banned
Actually, Windows Vista is based on Windows Server 2003, and has been since the end of Milestone 7 (Build 4093).

After the failure of the Longhorn development cycle between 2001 (according to anti-trust documents) and 2004, Microsoft forked the 'post-reset' Windows Vista from a build of Windows Server 2003. In fact, the first 'leaked' build of Longhorn 'post-reset' in 2004, is Build 3790.1232, which is basically just a build of Windows Server 2K3. Also, Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 are not 'two distinct' kernels. Windows Server 2003's kernel (NT 5.2) is fundamentally Windows XP with a few tweaks that were later backported to XP in SP2 and SP3. Windows 7 is similar to this; it's basically Vista with a few tweaks to make it more efficient. 8, 8.1 and 10 share this as well.

If you look at Windows Vista build 5048 (WinHEC 2005 preview build), it is based on the Windows Server 2003 codebase. It is only a brief hop to Windows Vista's release build of 6.0.6000.

So @kasumigenx, your entire premise is already fulfilled by OTL.

And Windows XP for 64-bit computers already exists. It existed for Itanium 64 (Intel's first attempt at 64-bit computers before AMD innovated x86_64) and Windows XP x86_64 (after the release of the Athlon 64). Neither one caught on because almost nobody had 64-bit processors in the early 2000s.
 
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Asami

Banned
I was thinking, why did Microsoft did not make Longhorn the consumer version of Windows Server 2003

Longhorn as it was conceptualized before Vista (pre-2004)... was horrendously buggy, had more memory leaks than a rusted plumbing system has water leaks, and was a disaster of epic proportions.
 
Longhorn as it was conceptualized before Vista (pre-2004)... was horrendously buggy, had more memory leaks than a rusted plumbing system has water leaks, and was a disaster of epic proportions.

The biggest problem of Longhorn that the features of BlackComb aka Windows 6(OTL Windows 7) creeped into Longhorn...it is ironic that Windows 7 fixed the problems of Windows Vista..

For me the best course of action was to stick the Blackcomb features to the Windows 6xxxx(OTL Windows Vista and 7) and just let Windows Longhorn to be the bridge between Windows XP and Windows 6(blackcomb)..in that way the Vista would not have the premature disastrous release and we would have only the Windows 7 analogue..
 
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