Windows has always been terrible. At this point, I honestly think the anomalously good Windows 2000 was an accident rather than anything deliberate. In fact I'

Windows has always been terrible. At this point, I honestly think the anomalously good Windows 2000 was an accident rather than anything deliberate. In fact I'd go further and say everything Microsoft touches turns to slop. Windows CE was garbage. 9x was garbage (as was everything that preceded it). Even Microsoft BASIC was garbage. I suspect the only reason people hold Windows 7 in such high regard is a combination of: - them being too young to have used Windows 2000. 7 might be terrible but it's the least worst Windows OS in over a 20-year time span. So younger professionals today wouldn't have had the luxury of using Windows 2000 - Stockholm syndrome, where they're forced into using Windows for work so don't know any better. The problem we have today is that there isn't anything particularly good around either. macOS is slop. Linux is probably the least worst of current desktop operating systems but Linux is still terrible for a plethora of reasons and a whole lot of use cases. It's no wonder the general populous find smartphone/tablet OSs more convenient than laptops for casual stuff. I think I would too if my options were Windows or Android/iOS.