c++(19)98 was the first c++ standard. There was a minor update in 2003 to fix the most obvious defects. The next standard was c++11. If it felt stuck in the 2000s, it's because it was stuck in the 2000s. And it wasn't just Windows/Microsoft - To this day, gcc 4 (-std=c++0x if you want some c++11 features) is the standard compiler for many Linux sites.