Earlier quoted context omitted.
There’s also Windows 2000, which I think was the worst of all.
It was a server and workstation OS not really suited for consumer desktop.
i used it as my daily driver on a sony laptop - worked like a charm.
My long goodbye to Windows XP (2022)
31–40 of 323 posts
Re: My long goodbye to Windows XP (2022)
#32Earlier quoted context omitted.
95 was trash, 98 was gold. XP was great, Vista was trash. 7 was great, 8 was trash. 10 was gold, 11 is trash. Seems Microsoft has to squeeze in at least one bad version between good ones. But never has a new Windows version been made available where people didn't initially hate them at first, XP, 7, and 10 included. It's not until the version after gets released when people really start appreciating what once was.
You have missed Windows ME between XP and 98, which was so awful people don't remember it anymore. For a revolutionary product, Windows 95 wasn't that bad.
ME was all the features that eventually went into XP but still based on the Windows 98 kernel instead of NT.
What made XP great was how reliable it was compared to previous Windows versions.
Re: My long goodbye to Windows XP (2022)
#33Earlier quoted context omitted.
Curious if you'd ever used a version of Windows NT prior to 2000? Since 2000 was part of the NT line, it might not be a fair comparison.
Windows NT before 2000 had problems with games and such, 2000 worked well because most games were now working to target XP ( and 2k had better compatibility with 98 anyway).
Windows NT 4.0's problems with gaming have everything to do with only supporting DirectX up to version 3.0a.
Yes, you read that right: DirectX 3.0a.
Windows 2000 by contrast supported DirectX all the way through DirectX 9.0c, same as Windows XP, 98, and ME.
This is why Windows 2000 could run games properly.
Re: My long goodbye to Windows XP (2022)
#34None of Microsoft's operating systems were as good as Windows XP and at least one (8) was a complete disaster, the shock waves from that catastrophe still rumbling around. By failing to reproduce that success, Microsoft has ceded most of the moral market share to Apple. Though, as a Linux user, every time I see a Mac desktop I can't resist noticing how often would it lock up and display that rotating "busy" mouse cur…
I've been working professionally using a Mac for 4ish years now. Can count on a single hand the amount of times the cursor is stuck spinning / loading.
I have had my fair share of crashes though.
Re: My long goodbye to Windows XP (2022)
#35None of Microsoft's operating systems were as good as Windows XP and at least one (8) was a complete disaster, the shock waves from that catastrophe still rumbling around. By failing to reproduce that success, Microsoft has ceded most of the moral market share to Apple. Though, as a Linux user, every time I see a Mac desktop I can't resist noticing how often would it lock up and display that rotating "busy" mouse cur…
95 was trash, 98 was gold. XP was great, Vista was trash. 7 was great, 8 was trash. 10 was gold, 11 is trash. Seems Microsoft has to squeeze in at least one bad version between good ones. But never has a new Windows version been made available where people didn't initially hate them at first, XP, 7, and 10 included. It's not until the version after gets released when people really start appreciating what once was.
>11 is trash.
11 has all the same problems 10 has, but brings many significant improvements both in the backend and frontend. Hardly trash.
>never has a new Windows version been made available where people didn't initially hate them at first
Windows 95 and 98 were both received to applause and fanfare, 95's stellar reception in particular is probably still unmatched to this day.
Re: My long goodbye to Windows XP (2022)
#36Earlier quoted context omitted.
For me, the big change came with Windows 2000. It had user benefits from 9x in a stable package. That was the first version that I can play games on and also leave it running for months, just like a Linux box.
Curious if you'd ever used a version of Windows NT prior to 2000? Since 2000 was part of the NT line, it might not be a fair comparison.
I did not use NT at home, but I occasionally used it at school. For me at that time, the ability to play games had been as strong a requirement as the ability to be stable and run word processing, email clients and VC++. So I would use Win95 and curse its (in)stability and reboot several times per day, but not switch to NT. Also, NT cost an arm and a leg for a student.
Win2k was a huge improvement in every respect. My 2c.
Re: My long goodbye to Windows XP (2022)
#37Windows XP on it's own, behind Windows Firewall and a router firewall not doing anything too controversial may be fine. Where the risks become higher is when you have many machines across the network. That one host would lower the overall security of everything else around limiting the ability to disable weak protocols.
Backwards compatibility with Windows/AD has always caused issues with Active Directory becoming such a juicy target in the way system-to-systems interacted.
Re: My long goodbye to Windows XP (2022)
#38>My belief is that computer security is highly overrated. With a decent firewall, which every router has these days, only your own activity can expose you to attack from hostile actors. All internet browsers also help you by warning when you are about to do something stupid like executing code from a remote source.
This is a ridiculous thing to say. The reason that there are so few misleading ads, so few zero days being exploited, and in general a much less tricky landscape today is because the unyielding and unrelenting efforts of people improving computer security.
Re: My long goodbye to Windows XP (2022)
#39None of Microsoft's operating systems were as good as Windows XP and at least one (8) was a complete disaster, the shock waves from that catastrophe still rumbling around. By failing to reproduce that success, Microsoft has ceded most of the moral market share to Apple. Though, as a Linux user, every time I see a Mac desktop I can't resist noticing how often would it lock up and display that rotating "busy" mouse cur…
95 was trash, 98 was gold. XP was great, Vista was trash. 7 was great, 8 was trash. 10 was gold, 11 is trash. Seems Microsoft has to squeeze in at least one bad version between good ones. But never has a new Windows version been made available where people didn't initially hate them at first, XP, 7, and 10 included. It's not until the version after gets released when people really start appreciating what once was.
Instability aside, Windows 98 marked the point where Internet Explorer leeched itself into the operating system to the point of no return (only to be finally reversed in the past year). The complaints of social media apps being "preinstalled" with Windows 11 seem to echo the channel bar, Active Desktop and everything else that arrived with IE4. I believe that the notion that Windows 98 was good came when IE5 were released and pulled back on some of those integrations, which happened to coincide with the timing of 98 Second Edition. In any case it was by no means great, but it was good enough.
Re: My long goodbye to Windows XP (2022)
#40None of Microsoft's operating systems were as good as Windows XP and at least one (8) was a complete disaster, the shock waves from that catastrophe still rumbling around. By failing to reproduce that success, Microsoft has ceded most of the moral market share to Apple. Though, as a Linux user, every time I see a Mac desktop I can't resist noticing how often would it lock up and display that rotating "busy" mouse cur…
Most people I know that have some experience say that w2k was the best one ms ever released.