If D&D had as many new editions as MtG...

KDLadage · Jul 2, 2003

Or Windows 2.0 -- something I think only the military got to "experience" as it was supposed to be part of the "C2 by 92" campaign when Microsoft promised that DOS would be C2 security compliant by 92 -- they lied.

KDLadage · Jul 2, 2003

According to http://www.computerhope.com/history/windows.htm

COMPUTER HISTORY
History of Microsoft Windows

1983 Microsoft Windows was announced November, 1983 and sells for $100.00.

1985 Microsoft Windows 1.0 was released November, 1985.

1987 Microsoft Windows 2.0 was released April, 1987.

1990 Microsoft Windows 3.0 was released May, 1990.

1991 Microsoft Windows 3.0 with multimedia was released October, 1991.

1992 Microsoft Windows 3.1 was released April, 1992 and sells more than 1 Million copies within the first two months of its release.

1992 Microsoft Windows for Workgroups 3.1 was released October, 1992.

1993 Microsoft Windows NT 3.1 was released August, 1993.

1993 The number of licensed users of Microsoft Windows now totals more then 25 Million.

1994 Microsoft Windows for Workgroups 3.11 was released February, 1994.

1994 Microsoft Windows NT 3.5 was released September, 1994.

1995 Microsoft Windows NT 3.51 was released June, 1995.

1995 Microsoft Windows 95 was released August, 1995 and sells more than 1 Million copies within 4 days.

1996 Microsoft Windows NT 4.0 was released August, 1996.

1996 Microsoft Windows CE 1.0 was released November, 1996.

1997 Microsoft Windows CE 2.0 was released November, 1997.

1998 Microsoft Windows 98 was released June, 1998.

1998 Microsoft Windows CE 2.1 was released July, 1998.

1999 Microsoft Windows 98 SE (Second Edition) was released May, 1999.

1999 Microsoft Windows CE 3.0 was released 1999.

2000 Microsoft Windows 2000 was released February 2000.

2000 Microsoft Windows ME (Millennium) released July 2000.

And this does not even cover XP...

Enkhidu · Jul 2, 2003

Here's something scary - when you think about it, the D&D evolution is a lot like the evolution of Windows...

oD&D is a lot like Windows 1-3.1 - new, not too flashy, but gets the job done (albiet with a lot of tinkering for more complex jobs).

Basic D&D (edited by Holmes) codified things a bit and more importantly made things more accessible for the consumer - a lot like Win95

AD&D was the NT of its time - more complex code than its "lite" cousin, it was built for people who like to beat the heck out of systems. It also was more unfriendly to change (remember Gary's rants in the old Dragon mags about D&D and chess?) and notoriously difficult to tweak.

The next two Basic sets (by separate editors) were largely repackaging of a successful product, and meshing the different basic sets is fairly easy - they are extremely backwards compatible (just like the various 9x systems - if it ran on 95, odds are it will run on 98 or 98SE).

Meanwhile, the addition of Unearthed Arcana was the NT SP4 of AD&D: lots of consumers stayed with SP4 for quite a long time, even after the next updates came out (SP5, or for AD&D the players options) because it proved to be fairly stable, if quirky.

3rd Ed is much like Win2K - it started trying to bridge the gap between the two systems (and 2K, and its successor, XP now claim to be a platform that will encompass everyone's needs, just like 3rd Ed does).

Which brings us to 3.5 and XP - the latest offerings. At their core, they both use basically the same kernal as their predecessor, with a few tweaks here and there. And both, by the way, come in a slick new package.