Description
Windows XP (stylized as Windowsxp) is a major release of Microsoft's Windows NT operating system. It was released to manufacturing on August 24, 2001, and later to retail on October 25 that year. It is a direct successor to Windows 2000 for high-end and business users and Windows Me for home users.
Development of Windows XP began in the late 1990s under the codename "Neptune", built on the Windows NT kernel, and explicitly intended for mainstream consumer use. An updated version of Windows 2000 was also initially planned for the business market. However, in January 2000, both projects were scrapped in favor of a single OS codenamed "Whistler", which would serve as a single platform for both consumer and business markets. As a result, Windows XP is the first consumer edition of Windows not based on the Windows 95 kernel or MS-DOS.
Upon its release, Windows XP received critical acclaim, noting increased performance and stability (especially compared to Windows Me), a more intuitive user interface, improved hardware support and expanded multimedia capabilities.
Description from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_XP