I've been using Windows since the days of Windows 95, and while Windows was not my daily driver from 2006 to 2021 (I was primarily a Mac user during this period

I've been using Windows since the days of Windows 95, and while Windows was not my daily driver from 2006 to 2021 (I was primarily a Mac user during this period), I've used every desktop version of Windows since 95 with the exceptions of Me, Vista, and 8. I also have some limited development experience on Windows, mostly relegated to Visual Basic 6 in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Most of my development experiences from 2004 onward were on some type of Unix system, including WSL. My opinion is that Windows, from an architectural point of view, is not a bad OS. The Win32 API is a stable foundation for building native GUI applications, and a part of me wishes the Linux desktop ecosystem just leaned on Wine given how the ongoing GTK vs Qt saga has been playing out (though I also understand the political ramifications of this, especially back in the 1990s). I like PowerShell, and I also think COM and OLE were impressive for their time and could have been the engine behind a more component-based, object-oriented desktop experience had non-Microsoft developers leaned into it more. I have fond memories of Windows 2000, a rock-solid operating system that didn't get into my way. ReactOS carries this spirit. The addition of WSL in Windows 10 made it easier for me to switch away from macOS as my daily driver after being disappointed with Apple's moves toward soldered RAM and storage throughout much of their hardware. Windows has also come a long way from the security issues it was plagued with in the Windows XP era. I also remember being very excited about WinFS in the mid-2000s and being disappointed when WinFS was cancelled in order to prevent further delays with Windows Vista. While file search has gotten much better since the XP days, I still think something like WinFS would be awesome today. What holds Windows back from being awesome, in my opinion, are the decisions Microsoft makes that detracts from the user experience. Minor issues for me are matters of taste; I prefer the classic Windows 95-style interface to Windows 10 and 11's UI/UX, but honestly I don't like modern flat UI/UX across the board; it's not solely a Microsoft issue. More serious annoyances include ads, aggressive updates, the TPM requirement in Windows 11, and Windows Recall, among others. Modern Windows with its annoyances removed would be a good desktop OS for me.