I'm not sure that I see a problem here.  From 1996 through early 2000 we were in a holding pattern with Windows.  Windows 98 was a fairly poor release, and Windows NT 4.0 (Workstation and Server) was the choice of OS for many developers who had a choice.  It was not until late 1999/early 2000 that many of us were able to finally break free from the chains of NT 4.0 to start running Windows 2000, a huge step forward in terms of functionality, stability, and performance.  I think Windows releases have been better and more consistent since 2000 than they were in the mid-1990's, and I'm guessing that the next releases are going to be even bigger leaps forward than the transition from NT 4.0 to Windows 2000.