4 ms·
It really was the peak of Windows in terms of usability, aesthetics, and speed.
by sylens 2y ago
It really was the peak of Windows in terms of usability, aesthetics, and speed.
- Koshkin 2y agoAt first, sure. But then, with all the service packs it became all but unusable on the computers on which it came preinstalled and used to run fine.
- kilolima 2y agoThat was Windows 2000.
- mouse_ 2y agoLove 7 and Vista but I have to agree with you there. 2000 is peak function.
- machomaster 2y agoVista? You must be joking, right?
- EvanAnderson 2y agoI'll split hairs and go w/ Windows Server 2003. It has all the XP kernel improvements, very little bloat, but sticks with a mostly Windows 2000 visual style. I ran it as a daily driver on a Thinkpad back in the 2004 - 2010 timeframe and really enjoyed it.
- mixmastamyk 2y agoThere was a 64bit XP around this timeframe as well and can use the classic theme.
- EvanAnderson 2y agoWindows XP 64-bit is based on the Server 2003 code, funnily enough. My old ThinkPad didn't have a 64-bit CPU so I couldn't use it.
- xaldir 2y agoXP 64 was kinda good but crippled by poor driver support and thus stability issues.
- BSDobelix 2y agoYES, Windows Server 2003R2 was the best version of Windows ever. I worked with it professionally for about 8 years, if you just used MS software on it (exchange sql server etc) that thing NEVER crashed, when we deployed a 2003R2 (as opposed to a 2008/2008R2) we referred to it as deploying the VMS (openVMS). BTW: However, i never used the 2003 64-bit version.
- samtheDamned 2y agoIf you haven't heard about it already I think you'd be interested in the [ReactOS](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ReactOS#Development https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ReactOS#Development) project which has been working on building an OS that is binary compatible with Windows Server 2003 while being GPL licensed. It's far from daily drivable but it's a fascinating little project.
- Kwpolska 2y agoNothing stops you from using the classic theme on XP, and conversely, you can enable the eye-candy themes on 2003.
- mixmastamyk 2y agoYou could disable most useless services back then so it could be even faster.