Your favourite and least favourite versions of Windows

[Farnhamia]

I don't see what was bad about Windows 3.1.1 but then again ... *holds up Macintosh 128K & smiles*

[Ethel mermania]

The freight program that runs my states rail system has frequent errors with anything newer than Windows XP.

That is a major problem across the industry. The software is integrated into the windows OS. The security folks love it .

[Ethel mermania]

I don't see what was bad about Windows 3.1.1 but then again ... *holds up Macintosh 128K & smiles*

Ahhh apple talk, I remember it well, Horatio

[The Free Joy State]

I've used every Windows since 98 (I think), and my favourite is Windows 7 -- fast, secure (at least enough to build on with additional anti-virus software), easy to navigate, non-invasive updates... it was basically everything you need in an operating system.

I hate Windows 10 -- Windows 8 had an awkward, badly designed interface. Windows 10 has that and breaks something every other update.

[Cekoviu]

I've used every Windows since 98 (I think), and my favourite is Windows 7 -- fast, secure (at least enough to build on with additional anti-virus software), easy to navigate, non-invasive updates... it was basically everything you need in an operating system.

I hate Windows 10 -- Windows 8 had an awkward, badly designed interface. Windows 10 has that and breaks something every other update.

to be honest, i wouldn't say windows 10's interface is that badly designed from a graphic design/UX standpoint (it's not my personal cup of tea - i tend to prefer a mac-like style anyway - but it's not objectively bad). the [many] objective problems with it are generally more technological than aesthetic.

[The Free Joy State]

I've used every Windows since 98 (I think), and my favourite is Windows 7 -- fast, secure (at least enough to build on with additional anti-virus software), easy to navigate, non-invasive updates... it was basically everything you need in an operating system.

I hate Windows 10 -- Windows 8 had an awkward, badly designed interface. Windows 10 has that and breaks something every other update.

to be honest, i wouldn't say windows 10's interface is that badly designed from a graphic design/UX standpoint (it's not my personal cup of tea - i tend to prefer a mac-like style anyway - but it's not objectively bad). the [many] objective problems with it are generally more technological than aesthetic.

From an objective standpoint, I stand by awkward; it's unintuitive.

As for the actual design, that is always subjective, of course -- I personally find it ugly and thought the old interface much cleaner. I dislike a cluttered interface, especially one stuffed with freemium games (some of which I generally have to re-delete after each new systems upgrade).

[Nouvelle-Floride]

Windows 7, because it just works™. That being said, I currently use Windows 10 LTSB 2016, because it also just works™ with no fuss.
I've never used Windows 8/8.1 for longer than 30 minutes because I die inside unless I slap Classic Shell/Open Shell on top of it.

I've also used Gentoo and FreeBSD on physical hardware for giggles, but this isn't a *NIX thread I take it.

[US-SSR]

Q: What's the worst Micro$oft product ever? A: The next one.

[SatoSere]

Society has progressed past a need for Windows. Linux gang.

But anyway, I grew up with 7 and 10 and I think my favorite ones are those versions.

[Nouvelle-Floride]

Society has progressed past a need for Windows. Linux gang.

But anyway, I grew up with 7 and 10 and I think my favorite ones are those versions.

Envious, tbh. Proctoring aka over-glorified spying software pretty much requires either Windows or Mac OS, not to mention Win32 programs that would have to be virtualized via KVM in order to get that to work.

[Confederate American SU]

My favorite has to be Windows 7 followed by XP. Windows 8 actually isn't on the bottom due to ClassicShell, which I use with Windows 7 anyways.

On the bottom has to be 10 and Vista.

[Cekoviu]

Society has progressed past a need for Windows. Linux gang.

But anyway, I grew up with 7 and 10 and I think my favorite ones are those versions.

what distro

[Nouvelle-Floride]

Society has progressed past a need for Windows. Linux gang.

But anyway, I grew up with 7 and 10 and I think my favorite ones are those versions.

what distro

btw i use arch

[An Alan Smithee Nation]

I don't see what was bad about Windows 3.1.1 but then again ... *holds up Macintosh 128K & smiles*

Paging Dr Dos, Dr Dos to the white courtesy telephone

[The Orson Empire]

I have many good memories of Windows XP and 7. I utterly despise Vista and 8.

[Harmonic Empire]

7 was the best.
From 8, the Windows slowly lost its quality and now you got 10 the abomination

[Lillorainen]

Looks like I'm not completely alone with my opinion in here - Windows 7 (which I started using again when reviving my old laptop with it when my previous one, using 10, crashed), closely followed by XP, was the best one. The first PC I've ever had used Windows ME, which is regarded as one of the worst OS in here, and while it's mediocre-at-best from my perspective of now, I don't remember it as too horrible (then again, I was a kid back then, and my parents could barely figure out how to turn a PC on, let alone be asked to know about the pros and cons of operating systems ...).
Windows 10 is arguably the worst for me - barely usable, completely uninutitive for a guy like me, the security leaves a lot to desire (and this comes from someone using Windows 7 beyond official EOL!), and most annoyingly, the sudden updates that made me lose a lot of working progress forever, which was the source of many of my rages during the time I used it. I can't remember to ever have used Windows 8, but some in here mentioned it as a pretty bad prelude of what Windows 10 would become.
Vista wasn't exactly brilliant, either, based on my memories of using it on the computers of my school, which our teachers insisted on using them on for reasons beyond me, but someone else in this thread mentioned, that without Windows Vista with all its flaws as an intermediate step, Windows 7 wouldn't have become what it ultimately became, so let's consider it 'historically important'. ^^

[Reorganized Nationalist Daguo]

Microsoft Bob is, by far, the worst operating system to ever exist.

[The Cosmic Mainframe]

Microsoft Bob is, by far, the worst operating system to ever exist.

It wasn't really an operating system, since it needed an already working Windows or MS-DOS system to run. It was more of a desktop environment. But I agree, it was the worst by far.

As a side note, I wonder why NT is the least popular. Maybe just because no one used it.

[Lillorainen]

As a side note, I wonder why NT is the least popular. Maybe just because no one used it.

Maybe too few of us are old enough to have actively used it by the time NT 3.5 and/or NT 4.0 were new (I was born in the first half of the 1990s, for instance), or haven't actively used a PC at that time altogether - or some did use it and find later versions of Windows way better.

[Luna Amore]

Windows 10 if only for a search function that actually works. They finally mimicked Spotlight.

[Punished UMN]

I'm a prerelease tester for Windows 10. I get new versions each week. I must admit the initial release version of 10 was rough round the edges, but it has been improving greatly with each build.

I'm not a tester but in general I agree. Windows 10 gets more flak than it deserves, the search function generally works well and the OS in-general is pretty intuitive to use. I think a lot of the hate it gets is just standard "old thing good new thing bad" nostalgia.

[Dogmeat]

I like 98 and 7. 7 over 98 if I had to choose.

10 isn't terrible. But I can't really think of anything that's "better" about it than 7. And I can think of quite a few things that are worse/less convenient/more annoying.

[Vetalia]

It's a tossup between Windows 3.1 and Windows 98 for favorites:

-Windows 3.1 because that was the system that our family's first computer used, so there's a lot of nostalgia about it along with all of the classic and kids' games I played back then (Myst, the various early Sim games, Putt Putt Goes to the Moon, Treasure Cove, etc.). Also the infamous Hot Dog Stand theme.

-Windows 98 because it still ran those old DOS games but also covered the real height of the RTS, simulation and city-building era (Caesar 3, Pharaoh, Simcity 3000, The Sims) along with Baldur's Gate II, IMO the greatest D&D computer RPG of all time. That was also the time when the internet had really taken off and was a new and exciting part of using the computer.

Least favorite has to be Windows 8. Just seemed buggy as all hell and had plenty of issues before it became tolerable.

[US-SSR]

Windows: a 64 bit GUI for a set of 32 bit extensions on a 16 bit shell for an 8 bit OS using a 4 bit kernel made by a 2 bit company that can't stand 1 bit of competition.