Fun fact, XP x64 edition was just a reskinned server 2003 64 bit.
It was done so poorly that some programs would complain that you shouldn’t install the software on a server. Some applications would refuse to install because they saw the OS as a server.
It handled multiple monitors and had Internet connection sharing, two things 98SE couldn’t do.
Most people don’t realize that ME wasn’t completely terrible. Same with Vista, and 8.1.
Windows 8 is unforgivable. The UI changes were simply a mistake. Made the OS really difficult to use unless you were fat fingering a touchscreen all day… That’s the only scenario where the UI of W8 made any sense. For kB/mouse users, out was just unwieldy. The function of W8 was fine, but it was like putting a sports car motor into a minivan, and then loading it up with lead plates and wondering why the handling sucks.
I have… Thoughts about W11 too, but they’re more under the hood complaints. Some UI complaints but mostly under the hood stuff that makes me go hmmm.
Windows ME broke DOS support just to pretend it wasn’t 9x in a new hat. At the time - this was kind of a big deal. 98 was objectively better for any typical suburban setup.
XP was also NT in a new hat, but they had it fake all the bugs that popular games expected. Plus the hat was nice. That Fisher-Price UI era was genuinely great, especially compared to modern ultra-flat nonsense. Windows 95 had instantly visible hierarchy in sixteen colors. Nowadays you can’t even tell what’s clickable without guesswork and memorization. Or at best you get a dozen indistinct monochrome icons.
Windows 7 was the only time Microsoft nailed everything. Each XP service pack broke and fixed a random assortment of features. Everything from 8 onward is broken on purpose, first for the stupid tablet interface (when WinCE’s 9x UI worked just fucking fine on 3" screens with Super Nintendo resolutions), then to openly betray all trust and control. I would still be using Windows 7 to-day if modern malware wasn’t so scary. It’s not even about vulnerability - I must have reinstalled XP once a month, thanks to the sketchiest codec packs ever published. But since I can’t back up my whole hard drive on five dollars worth of DVD-Rs, the existence of ransomware pushed me back to Linux Mint.
Fun fact, XP x64 edition was just a reskinned server 2003 64 bit.
It was done so poorly that some programs would complain that you shouldn’t install the software on a server. Some applications would refuse to install because they saw the OS as a server.
XP x64 edition was a mistake.
Oh my god, they Windows ME’d it.
ME did have some improvements over 98SE.
It handled multiple monitors and had Internet connection sharing, two things 98SE couldn’t do.
Most people don’t realize that ME wasn’t completely terrible. Same with Vista, and 8.1. Windows 8 is unforgivable. The UI changes were simply a mistake. Made the OS really difficult to use unless you were fat fingering a touchscreen all day… That’s the only scenario where the UI of W8 made any sense. For kB/mouse users, out was just unwieldy. The function of W8 was fine, but it was like putting a sports car motor into a minivan, and then loading it up with lead plates and wondering why the handling sucks.
I have… Thoughts about W11 too, but they’re more under the hood complaints. Some UI complaints but mostly under the hood stuff that makes me go hmmm.
Windows ME broke DOS support just to pretend it wasn’t 9x in a new hat. At the time - this was kind of a big deal. 98 was objectively better for any typical suburban setup.
XP was also NT in a new hat, but they had it fake all the bugs that popular games expected. Plus the hat was nice. That Fisher-Price UI era was genuinely great, especially compared to modern ultra-flat nonsense. Windows 95 had instantly visible hierarchy in sixteen colors. Nowadays you can’t even tell what’s clickable without guesswork and memorization. Or at best you get a dozen indistinct monochrome icons.
Windows 7 was the only time Microsoft nailed everything. Each XP service pack broke and fixed a random assortment of features. Everything from 8 onward is broken on purpose, first for the stupid tablet interface (when WinCE’s 9x UI worked just fucking fine on 3" screens with Super Nintendo resolutions), then to openly betray all trust and control. I would still be using Windows 7 to-day if modern malware wasn’t so scary. It’s not even about vulnerability - I must have reinstalled XP once a month, thanks to the sketchiest codec packs ever published. But since I can’t back up my whole hard drive on five dollars worth of DVD-Rs, the existence of ransomware pushed me back to Linux Mint.