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Here's a recent Microsoft article claiming, "Windows 95 was launched on August 24, 1995".
But I distinctly remember thinking that it was late, back at that time. It had always seemed like a lot of hubris to name a product after a date only to find you couldn't ship it on time. But is my memory incorrect?
(Maybe actual availability came in 1996 for some reason?)
Yes, Windows 95 really was released on August 24, 1995; I still have the special issue of The Times that heralded the event.
But I distinctly remember thinking that it was late, back at that time.
That’s not surprising: Microsoft had been trumpeting the release of the next version of Windows for a long time, and there was widespread coverage in the media for a long time before the actual release, which was originally announced for 1994. Many magazines had lengthy articles about “Windows 4” or “Chicago” (the operating system’s code name) in 1994 and even 1993; they also shipped a number of demo disks quite a while before the actual release, and Microsoft themselves had a “preview” program available in some countries. The Windows 95 name was settled on late in 1994. As a result of all this, Windows 95 was perceived as “coming soon” for a very long time before its actual availability.
This wasn’t new for Microsoft; MS-DOS 6 had also had a lengthy beta program with a lot of users quite a long time before its release.
For a long time (starting late 1992/ early 1993), what was to become Windows 95 went under the name of "Chicago".
Only in september 1994 (beta 1.4 / build 189), did it become Windows 95. Microsoft must have been reasonably sure they were going to release in 1995 by then.
Early Chicago Usability Testing builds - 1992/93
Last Chicago labeled build - build 180
Here's a BBC News article describing the midnight retail availability of Windows 95 on 24th August 1995. This Mashable article claims to show a photograph of a buyer at the Australian launch on the same date. It gives a November date for Japan.
Yes, it was released in 1995, as other answers demonstrate through references.
But I distinctly remember thinking that it was late, back at that time.
Yup.
But is my memory incorrect?
No.
In fact, this is WHY the product called Windows 95 got the name that it did.
People were so fed up with the delays for something initially slated for 1993, that when Microsoft was going to again announce a delay from the intended Spring 1995 release, they also announced the formal name change. The point was to really, really emphasize that yes, they really are going to get this thing out in 1995. Because, as you correctly remembered, they were quite late.
By the way, shortly before Windows 95's release, OS/2 was actually outselling Microsoft Windows. Microsoft might not have had the success they did with Windows if they ended up delaying the product significantly, again.
Of course, the reality is, they did ship this in 1995. And that initial version wouldn't run for more than 49.7 days (without requiring a reboot) because of one of the product's uncaught bugs. I believe it also did not come with Microsoft Internet Explorer. Some features that many people think of as being part of Windows were actually released in a separate product called the "Windows 95 Plus!" pack, as a sold add-on which contained the Internet Jumpstart Kit including Microsoft Internet Explorer, and DriveSpace (which was previously part of MS-DOS 6.2 and 6.22), System Agent (later renamed to Task Scheduler), and other items like "graphical improvements such as anti-aliased screen fonts, full-window drag" (to quote WikiPedia's article for "Microsoft Plus!", section called "Microsoft Plus! for Windows 95). Perhaps such simplification helped to enable the greater focus on the larger operating system to be able to meet the desired target date.
So, in summary, Microsoft managed to get the thing out by 1995 by releasing a not-quite-polished-real-well version.
In a sense, it was late. Early in Development Microsoft expected to ship Windows 4 sooner than 1995. Wikipedia does list "Windows 93" and "Windows 94" as temporary project codenames for what was eventually released as Windows 95. But there was never public marketing for "Windows 94." Perhaps at the time you heard about Microsoft having an intention to release Windows 4 in 93 or 94, so you considered it late despite there being no real public commitment to an earlier timeline for the release.
That said, it was released in 1995, as the name suggests. Windows 98 likewise had "Windows 97" as an internal name before the timeline for release got finalized. It's pretty normal to start a project with an initial overly optimistic timeline.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Microsoft_codenames#Windows_3.x_and_9x
