The difference in 2002 is that Gates actually meant it, I know this because I got to see it first hand.
Windows XP SP3 was all about security. Vista introduced massive improvements with things like UAC, ASLR, Bitlocker, secure boot and add-ons like EMET that eventually got rolled into Windows itself. At the same time, there were massive changes in the engineering culture in terms of the secure development lifecycle.
A lot of other, arguably sexier feature work took a back seat to get all of these things across the line.
Windows XP SP3 was all about security. Vista introduced massive improvements with things like UAC, ASLR, Bitlocker, secure boot and add-ons like EMET that eventually got rolled into Windows itself. At the same time, there were massive changes in the engineering culture in terms of the secure development lifecycle.
A lot of other, arguably sexier feature work took a back seat to get all of these things across the line.