who where wrote:

Windoze 2k was never intended to be used as the next OS by
win-9x/me users.

Ya reckon? I guess you are entitled to think that.

No version of Windoze that came in a "server" flavor was ever intended
by Micro$haft to be used for home or soho users.

Win-NT4 had at least TWO server versions - hence you never saw NT4 on
home or soho computers.

Win-2K had THREE server versions - hence you never saw 2K on home or
soho computers.

Win-2003, 2008 and 2012 are server versions only.

There never was a server version of XP or Vista - that means yes, XP and
Vista came on home and soho computers.

There is no "server" version of Windows 7 - so that means that yes,
Windoze 7 came on home and soho computers.

The same is true for Windoze 8.

There was a LOT of hardware back in 2000 through 2001 that did not have
NT drivers that needed to be used with win-2k, particularly sound cards.

The wikipedia article on Windows 2000 doesn't say much about where
Microsoft positioned Win-2k relative to the consumer market or relative
to win-9x/me, except for this:

=================
Windows 2000 was first planned to replace both Windows 98 and Windows NT
4.0. However, that changed later. Instead, an updated version of Windows
98 called Windows 98 Second Edition was released in 1999 and Windows ME
was released in late 2000.
=================

And this:

=================
Windows 2000 Professional was designed as the desktop operating system
for businesses and power users
=================

Again, the hardware requirements for 2K were way beyond what the
consumer market was buying or could afford at the time, and also
remember that there were four versions of win-2k, three of which were
server versions, and the fourth version was "Windows 2000
PROFESSIONAL". I stress the word PROFESSIONAL here.

Windoze 2K was a progression between NT4 and XP, but it wasn't ready
to be used by the average boob, either on home computers or SOHO
computers.

I see that the other way around - those users weren't ready for 2K.

Those users DIDN'T NEED 2K.

The NT line was designed first and foremost to meet the IT needs of big
corps, institutions and gov't use. Home and soho users didn't need all
the extra baggage that came turned-on by default with 2K and XP - those
various services that turned computers into trojan-hosting botnet
zombies in the hands of home and soho users.

Windows 2K wasn't ready to be placed in the hands of home and soho users
because 2K needs to be administered by a central IT department and
protected up the wazoo behind dedicated firewalls and other network
appliances. Even XP-SP0 and SP1 wasn't ready to be put in the hands of
home and soho users. In their hands, XP helped hackers explode the
internet with spam and botnets.