3 ms·

People always say that, but it’s not really been completely true. < 3.1 Bad 3.1 Good 3.11 WfW Good NT 3.5 Okay 95 Good NT 4.0 Good 98 Good Me Bad 2000

by _mlbt 2y ago

People always say that, but it’s not really been completely true. < 3.1 Bad 3.1 Good 3.11 WfW Good NT 3.5 Okay 95 Good NT 4.0 Good 98 Good Me Bad 2000 Good XP Good Vista Bad 7 Good 8 Bad 8.1 Okay 10 Good 11 Bad There just really isn’t a pattern to it.

karmakaze 2y ago
NT 3.51 Best These are also mixing two separate streams: Win3.x/9x/ME and NT+
NikkiA 2y ago
The only 'bad' thing about Vista was it's change (and thus deprecation of many drivers) of driver model. Once tweaked and with good native drivers it was the first good 64bit windows - far more reliable than XP64. At least until 7 came out.
acheron 2y ago
Windows 3.0 was good. 3.1 was a minor improvement.
- Narishma 2y ago
  3.0 was ok but a bit rough around the edges and it crashed a lot. 3.1 was a substantial improvement in that regard. It also brought major features like TTF fonts, the registry, a usable file manager, audio and video support, and networking in the Workgroups version.
tonyedgecombe 2y ago
>95 Good That's arguable, I thought it was poor at the time.
- TheOtherHobbes 2y ago
  Windows users have low expectations. I still have PTSD from all the problems 9x caused me.
- _mlbt 2y ago
  On well supported hardware 95 was a major upgrade. The Start menu, long file names, preemptive multitasking, plug and play hardware, and Direct X gaming support. In many ways it even surpassed MacOS at the time.
hyperman1 2y ago
When Win10 started, it was clearly Bad. No good reason for updates, invasive privacy-breaking telemetry, updates at random moments of the day, and everything was a little different but nothing was better. People flat out refused to upgrade when it was given for free. Microsoft had to force it trough windows update, and did multiple rounds of breaking software people explicitly installed to block the upgrade. When did it become good? WSL and DirectX 12 were real changes, but all in all, my impression is that the user has been frog boiled over the years, with 2K,XP and 7 becoming distant memories.
- supportengineer 2y ago
  I remember that too. Microsoft was more aggressive and hostile towards the user than ever before.
nobleach 2y ago
XP was the last that I really REALLY used. I've had Windows 7 (on my work machine that I didn't use) and I have a Windows 10 machine that I boot from time to time when I want to mess with recording gear. But I kinda fell into "they're all bad, I was just used to them". I'll give my prime example. I used to know Device Manager/Control Panel SO well. I could just get things done. Now I have to hunt around forever to do any sort of hardware related task. In their attempt to make it "so easy, even your grandma could use it" they've alienated power users. My grandma still has to call me to help her attach a printer... but now I have to say, "I dunno... let me watch a YouTube video and pray that it matches the sub-version that you're using".
mhitza 2y ago
I don't know how good Windows 95 was in practice, but in our country where 99.9% of internet cafes didn't have licenses, or service pack updates (if they even had any for the 95 variant), it was a pretty easy Windows to DoS via the netbios vulnerability. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WinNuke https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WinNuke
timbit42 2y ago
There is a pattern when you remove the versions few people used.

by _mlbt 2y ago

karmakaze 2y ago

NT 3.51 Best These are also mixing two separate streams: Win3.x/9x/ME and NT+

NikkiA 2y ago

The only 'bad' thing about Vista was it's change (and thus deprecation of many drivers) of driver model. Once tweaked and with good native drivers it was the first good 64bit windows - far more reliable than XP64. At least until 7 came out.

acheron 2y ago

Windows 3.0 was good. 3.1 was a minor improvement.

Narishma 2y ago
3.0 was ok but a bit rough around the edges and it crashed a lot. 3.1 was a substantial improvement in that regard. It also brought major features like TTF fonts, the registry, a usable file manager, audio and video support, and networking in the Workgroups version.

tonyedgecombe 2y ago

>95 Good That's arguable, I thought it was poor at the time.

TheOtherHobbes 2y ago
Windows users have low expectations. I still have PTSD from all the problems 9x caused me.
_mlbt 2y ago
On well supported hardware 95 was a major upgrade. The Start menu, long file names, preemptive multitasking, plug and play hardware, and Direct X gaming support. In many ways it even surpassed MacOS at the time.

hyperman1 2y ago

When Win10 started, it was clearly Bad. No good reason for updates, invasive privacy-breaking telemetry, updates at random moments of the day, and everything was a little different but nothing was better. People flat out refused to upgrade when it was given for free. Microsoft had to force it trough windows update, and did multiple rounds of breaking software people explicitly installed to block the upgrade. When did it become good? WSL and DirectX 12 were real changes, but all in all, my impression is that the user has been frog boiled over the years, with 2K,XP and 7 becoming distant memories.

supportengineer 2y ago
I remember that too. Microsoft was more aggressive and hostile towards the user than ever before.

nobleach 2y ago

XP was the last that I really REALLY used. I've had Windows 7 (on my work machine that I didn't use) and I have a Windows 10 machine that I boot from time to time when I want to mess with recording gear. But I kinda fell into "they're all bad, I was just used to them". I'll give my prime example. I used to know Device Manager/Control Panel SO well. I could just get things done. Now I have to hunt around forever to do any sort of hardware related task. In their attempt to make it "so easy, even your grandma could use it" they've alienated power users. My grandma still has to call me to help her attach a printer... but now I have to say, "I dunno... let me watch a YouTube video and pray that it matches the sub-version that you're using".

mhitza 2y ago

I don't know how good Windows 95 was in practice, but in our country where 99.9% of internet cafes didn't have licenses, or service pack updates (if they even had any for the 95 variant), it was a pretty easy Windows to DoS via the netbios vulnerability. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WinNuke https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WinNuke

timbit42 2y ago

There is a pattern when you remove the versions few people used.