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Microsoft’s peak was Windows 7. It’s all been downhill after that.

burnt-resistor 1y ago
They had multiple peaks. DOS 6.22, Windows 2000, Windows XP/2K3 (kinda), and 7. They're trying hard to make 11 rhyme with the histories of Vista and Bob. (I only use Windows 11 Enterprise on my oscilloscope control and instrumentation logging lab box, and on a gaming-ish laptop with an eGPU.)
- linguae 1y ago
  Peak Microsoft to me was 1999-2000. Office 2000 (though Office 97 was also excellent), Windows 2000, and Visual Basic 6.0 were great. In my opinion, things started going downhill with Windows XP, with the introduction of product activation and the later introduction of forced software updates in Service Pack 2. I also don’t like the UI changes that Microsoft made in the 2000s, notably the Luna theme in Windows XP and the introduction of the ribbon in Office 2007. I still don’t like the ribbon nearly 20 years after its introduction. My take is that 1990s Microsoft software tended to get out of my way. From the 2000s onward, it seems that Microsoft software often gets in my way. I found a refuge in Mac OS X, but in the past decade macOS has gotten more annoying.
  - aucisson_masque 1y ago
    > I still don’t like the ribbon nearly 20 years after its introduction. > I found a refuge in Mac OS X, but in the past decade macOS has gotten more annoying. Agree on both, macOS is still nowhere near windows level of annoyance but it’s getting worst and worst. Each feature well integrated that made me like macOS was implemented at least 10 years ago, the recent feature are neat but don’t feel right. Like the window snapping, if you drag it to the top it will expand ‘almost’ fully but then if you didn’t stop at the right spot and kept dragging to the top your window goes instead to the virtual desktop screen. It’s extremely counterintuitive, and it keeps repeating with all these new features. Who use stage manager on macOS for instance ? Makes absolutely no sense. At some point it won’t be worth the premium price they are asking for and I guess I’ll go Linux desktop. It’s broken, counter intuitive, little support but at least it’s getting better with time, not worst.
- bigstrat2003 1y ago
  > They're trying hard to make 11 rhyme with the histories of Vista and Bob. Windows 11 wishes it was half as good as Vista. While much-maligned, Vista was decent enough. And it didn't show you ads, try to shove MS services down your throat, or any of the other user-hostile things 11 does.
  - burnt-resistor 1y ago
    Argh, yeah. 11 Enterprise defaults to showing ads before setting GPOs. What a pile of poo IYAM.
- pjmlp 1y ago
  VB 6, nothing in .NET or the multiple C++ frameworks, has been as easy to use for COM. MFC, although not as good as OWL/VCL/Qt, they never produced anything better in house for C++ developers.
milesrout 1y ago
[dead]
herbst 1y ago
I don't see anything peeking after 95 when they invented the UX we still all kinda stuck with.

They had multiple peaks. DOS 6.22, Windows 2000, Windows XP/2K3 (kinda), and 7. They're trying hard to make 11 rhyme with the histories of Vista and Bob. (I only use Windows 11 Enterprise on my oscilloscope control and instrumentation logging lab box, and on a gaming-ish laptop with an eGPU.)

linguae 1y ago
Peak Microsoft to me was 1999-2000. Office 2000 (though Office 97 was also excellent), Windows 2000, and Visual Basic 6.0 were great. In my opinion, things started going downhill with Windows XP, with the introduction of product activation and the later introduction of forced software updates in Service Pack 2. I also don’t like the UI changes that Microsoft made in the 2000s, notably the Luna theme in Windows XP and the introduction of the ribbon in Office 2007. I still don’t like the ribbon nearly 20 years after its introduction. My take is that 1990s Microsoft software tended to get out of my way. From the 2000s onward, it seems that Microsoft software often gets in my way. I found a refuge in Mac OS X, but in the past decade macOS has gotten more annoying.
- aucisson_masque 1y ago
  > I still don’t like the ribbon nearly 20 years after its introduction. > I found a refuge in Mac OS X, but in the past decade macOS has gotten more annoying. Agree on both, macOS is still nowhere near windows level of annoyance but it’s getting worst and worst. Each feature well integrated that made me like macOS was implemented at least 10 years ago, the recent feature are neat but don’t feel right. Like the window snapping, if you drag it to the top it will expand ‘almost’ fully but then if you didn’t stop at the right spot and kept dragging to the top your window goes instead to the virtual desktop screen. It’s extremely counterintuitive, and it keeps repeating with all these new features. Who use stage manager on macOS for instance ? Makes absolutely no sense. At some point it won’t be worth the premium price they are asking for and I guess I’ll go Linux desktop. It’s broken, counter intuitive, little support but at least it’s getting better with time, not worst.
bigstrat2003 1y ago
> They're trying hard to make 11 rhyme with the histories of Vista and Bob. Windows 11 wishes it was half as good as Vista. While much-maligned, Vista was decent enough. And it didn't show you ads, try to shove MS services down your throat, or any of the other user-hostile things 11 does.
- burnt-resistor 1y ago
  Argh, yeah. 11 Enterprise defaults to showing ads before setting GPOs. What a pile of poo IYAM.
pjmlp 1y ago
VB 6, nothing in .NET or the multiple C++ frameworks, has been as easy to use for COM. MFC, although not as good as OWL/VCL/Qt, they never produced anything better in house for C++ developers.

milesrout 1y ago

[dead]

herbst 1y ago

I don't see anything peeking after 95 when they invented the UX we still all kinda stuck with.