The worst and best Operating Systems I have used.

Discussion in 'Off-Topic Forum' started by Aunty Jack, Sep 1, 2015.

  1. Aunty Jack

    Aunty Jack

    Joined:
    Aug 25, 2014
    Messages:
    188
    Likes Received:
    24
    Location:
    Adelaide, in my dreams as my wife tells me.
    A new Operating System, (cheers, trumpet fanfare). !

    Have to try it now, immediately. It is new so it must be good. After all the hype says so.

    Yes, then reality hits like a brick to the back of the head.

    Windows 1.0. A GUI over DOS. Brave start but a lost argument against the first Apple Mac GUI system.

    Dos 4.1. The Windows you have when you don't have Windows. The Dos-Shell attempt at a GUI was losing to X-Tree before the race started. X-Tree was simple, logical and worked.

    Windows 95, more time looking at the BSOD than actually using this nice bright shiny new Operating System. Oh, and the different sub-variants, a, b, and if my addled old brain can recall, variant 3. And never the three would, “talk” to certain programs. Better to run Windows in DOS mode.

    Windows ME. Mistake Edition was closer to a description. The most unstable Operating System ever to be foisted on users.

    Windows Vista. Ground breaking in many ways but a hog at the trough when it came to resources. I am in two minds about Vista. The 32 bit version could be made to behave and stick to a diet when major intestinal surgery was carried out. In all, Vista was for the serious, “tweaker – probably not a good word to use these days) but Vista paved the way albeit in a lumbering way for Windows 7 and beyond.

    Windows 8. Just Windows 8 with the new all singling all dancing Metro tiles and no real access to the desktop, “out of the box”.

    Windows 10. Not a good start and will always be a, “work in progress”. Privacy concerns, Microsoft Edge way behind Google Canary 64 bit or Palemoon 64 bit as browser. Tied tighter than a hangman's noose to Bing. Have installed Windows 10 a few times and became, um mildly annoyed with it and uninstalled it again. Enough said.

    Linux. Brilliant at the speed of operation. Let down by lack of most popular software. Troubles with the Wubi installer (Ubuntu and Linux Mint). Wubi was withdrawn.

    I venture into waters either uncharted or with gun boats and submarines wanting my demise if I list my opinions with regard to the best Operating Systems. But, these are my favoured Operating Systems. No, I will refuse a blindfold but will have the last cigarette when I am put against a wall. Um, please use a Barrett M-107. One shot should see me off.

    The best Operating Systems. My opinions anyway. Feel free to disagree or to call me a silly old fool.

    The clear winner. Microsoft XP in all it's variants either 32 or 64 bit. Still a fresh and user friendly and, “all things to all men – and ladies”. As we see XP nearing 14 years of use, still the classic that copes with all that can be thrown at it. Infinitely tweakable, solid and reliable. Strange, with XP 64 bit some 64 bit drivers and programs baulked. But with more and more 64 bit programs being released XP 64 bit has had a shave, a haircut and shoe shine, and I think is coming into it's own.

    Windows 8.1. Here is where the firing squad starts taking aim at me. My current PC hardware is not backwards compatible for Windows 7 or XP. So, I am stuck with either Windows 8.1 or go kicking and screaming to Windows 10. However Windows 8.1 can be modified, have it's arms twisted behind it's back,be water boarded, and be made an offer it can not refuse. (sorry Godfather).

    Windows 8.1 can become the, “new XP”. In fact I begin to treat Windows 8.1 as XP and that, “funny familiar forgotten feeling starts walkin' all over my mind”. Sorry Englebert.

    Linux Mint 17.1 64 bit “Mate” version. Sheer speed and stability. But one needs a fair bit of Linux knowledge to make quite a few command line changes. The Linux Operating System is quite brilliant but years behind as regards software.

    Puppy Linux. A fun lightweight Operating System good enough to play with but not for anything serious. More a Linux Operating system to experiment with on a rainy cold afternoon.

    Ok, these are my opinions, take aim, fire. !.

    Feel free to bury me with agreement or contra views.

    Cheers to all,

    Aunty Jack.
     
    Last edited: Sep 1, 2015
    Aunty Jack, Sep 1, 2015
    #1
  2. Aunty Jack

    Elizabeth23

    Joined:
    Dec 10, 2012
    Messages:
    5,844
    Likes Received:
    754
    Location:
    Florida
    I was brought kicking and screaming into the computer age!!

    xp is the only system I have ever had. I like it. :)
     
    Elizabeth23, Sep 1, 2015
    #2
  3. Aunty Jack

    Termingamer2-JD

    Joined:
    Aug 28, 2015
    Messages:
    120
    Likes Received:
    9
    Location:
    England
    I've only used:

    Windows XP-8.1

    Xubuntu 15.04

    8.1 is still horrible (we have it at school, ugh). The start menu is rubbish, it's confusing, the uncompress .zip utility is still broken as is in Windows 7 and it's generally ugly.

    And XP is just over 14 years old, yep. Yet it still remains a great OS.

    For me, 7 is just Vista with a few extra tweaks and things (and some badly-done removals).
     
    Last edited: Sep 1, 2015
    Termingamer2-JD, Sep 1, 2015
    #3
  4. Aunty Jack

    Jody Thornton

    Joined:
    Jul 14, 2014
    Messages:
    185
    Likes Received:
    35
    Location:
    Richmond Hill, Ontario
    I really loved OS/2 Warp 3.0. Although I went kicking and screaming to Windows 95, it really did work well (but in truth I was only using it as a means of running 16-bit Windows apps).

    I think that Windows 2000 Professional was the first Windows version that I REALLY loved. But that was supplanted by Windows XP x64 Edition.

    Mind you, some things about XP have become long in the tooth. I actually like the "breadcrumb" style file open/save dialogs in Vista/7/8, but I used to hate them....lol

    DOS 4.01 was awful (I like v3.3, 5.0, and 6.2 best). Windows 8.1 is quite good. Just conceal Metro, Charms and add Classic Shell. Done!
     
    Last edited: Sep 2, 2015
    Jody Thornton, Sep 2, 2015
    #4
  5. Aunty Jack

    Jody Thornton

    Joined:
    Jul 14, 2014
    Messages:
    185
    Likes Received:
    35
    Location:
    Richmond Hill, Ontario
    Reposting what I typed some time ago here, because it's relevant.

    Well let's see. I'll step through the Windows versions I've used and give my three cents (inflation you know!) :p

    Windows 3.1 (and 3.11 for Workgroups)

    I liked it's simplicity and ease of use on top of DOS. I could always shell out for games and utilities. But it was sure lacking in terms of stability. Still I miss those days

    For what it's worth, I ran Win3x apps under OS/2 2.1 and OS/2 Warp 3 a lot of the time. I stayed with OS/2 right up until August 1996. I really loved OS/2, and I've tried eComstation 2.x recently, but it really leaves a lot to be desired next to new versions of Windows.

    Windows 95

    You know, as bug ridden as the original Win95 Upgrade release must have been, I had no problems with it. Likely though, that was because I was still mostly running 16-bit apps, thus not really putting the OS through its paces. I used LFNs Now to use long filenames with Office 4.3 and my old 16-bit Windows programs.

    I did try the Nashville Beta (Windows 96) and REALLY liked it. It would auto select icons just by hovering the mouse pointer over them, and launch without a click. I did eventually move over to Windows 95 OSR2 B, so I could use FAT32 volumes.

    Windows 98

    Especially when using audio editing and automation programs, Windows 98 was MUCH more stable than 95, but I soon upgraded to 98 SE, and that was even better. I had my P 200 MMX Classic all decked out to look like Windows 2000 (with icons and Tahoma...lol). Except for a couple attempts at running Windows ME, I ran 98 SE all the way up to 2003.

    Windows ME

    I don't think it was as all bad as many say it was. I liked the Windows 2000 look, and it had newer features like integrated USB flash drive support. But sometimes the file/open dialog screens wouldn't retain their settings if you changed them. And their were some occasional desktop fonts issues. I think Millennium Edition could be easily tweaked into working as a great OS, but in the end, I found 98 SE to just be more reliable for me.

    Windows NT

    I liked v3.51 because it was stable and solid, yet it had the Win3x look. But Windows NT 4.0 was a solid performer, and had the same look as Win95. I used the Server build more than the Workstation build, but my only complaint was, there way no way to add USB support (other than for keyboards and mice)

    Windows 2000

    Up until recently, this was my favourite version of Windows. I felt it was an exceedingly stable yet down-to-business version of Windows, with just enough glitz to make it pleasant to use (fade in menus), but without the bloat that XP had. I ran Windows 2000 on an AMD K62-450 system with 392 MB of RAM and it ran quite well. And it smoked on a Dell Optiplex PIII 866 MHz system with 512 MB of RAM.

    Windows XP

    In 2007, I bought an HP xw6000 system with a Xeon 2.68 GHZ CPU and 2 GB of RAM. I was all set to install Windows 2000 on it when I booted it up, and found that the preinstalled copy of Windows XP just flew on on it. So I stayed with it. And when I bought my xw8200 Workstation just three years later. I ran XP there too. It smoked with 2 Xeon CPUs even with visual styles applied. I thought I'd be perfectly happy with XP except.... (read the next one)

    Windows XP x64 Edition

    In November 2011, I decided to experiment with 64-bit XP. It was a natural fit for my xw8200 workstation. All of the hardware drivers (including the integrated u320 SCSI controller) were all included. Installation was a breeze. Sure there were some setup related hiccups, like getting MSE to work on it (I used the x64 build intended for Vista and 7).

    But once that was all sorted out, Windows XP 64-bit Edition represented what I considered to be and still recognize as the absolute best computing platform I've ever had. I know I'd be in the minority saying that, only because most systems will not fully support it, since Microsoft looked upon XP x64 as an after thought. But since I had the right machine, it was a beautiful computing experience. Dual Xeons and 7 GB of RAM! Yum!

    I ran XP 64-bit until February 2014. I really wanted to run it for longer. It ends up I found a source of updates post April-2014 and an x64 build of Pale Moon that would run on it. That means I could have run XP 64-bit Edition for another year. But a year ago February, those options weren't available. So I bailed and went to..... (next section please)

    Windows Vista

    When my boss purchased a new notebook in February 2006 preloaded with Vista, I was excited to try it out. The key word there is "was". Vista's RTM release was so slow and crash-prone. I guess it really didn't help that his notebook was only equipped with 1 GB of RAM (still huge at the time).

    But move ahead two service packs later, and now on my much beefier workstation, the x64 build of Vista is quite a solid fast platform. It run pretty much as fast as XP, it's prettier, and is VERY stable. But I only ever recommend using the x64 build, and it seems to work best when used with a source that has SP2 built right in. And use it with at least 6 GB of RAM. I have 7 GB and my setup runs with aplomb.

    Windows 7

    I dunno, I'm sort of "meh" when it comes to Windows 7. It's certainly QUITE solid and stable, but I'm not big on the iconized thick taskbar (yes I know that can be changed) but I just like Vista better. Plus I hate the ribbon being used on some apps.

    Windows 8.1

    I would bypass 8, but 8.1 with Update 1 runs quite briskly (better than 7 if you ask me). Plus, install Classic Shell and hide all of the Metro/Modern elements, and you have a somewhat modern looking, better running version of Windows 7.

    I plan to upgrade to it when Vista support expires in 2017. As for ribbon apps, I can just take the Paint and WordPad apps from Vista and place them in to the installation, and then I'll use the Windows 8x Ribbon Removal Script.

    Windows 10

    Not too thrilled so far. I liked the original TP build from November a lot better, but I hate the new Start Menu and Caption Buttons. When it's time to upgrade, I'll choose Windows 8.1, thank you very much.
     
    Last edited: Sep 2, 2015
    Jody Thornton, Sep 2, 2015
    #5
  6. Aunty Jack

    metastasis69

    Joined:
    May 8, 2014
    Messages:
    16
    Likes Received:
    1
    Location:
    Philippines
    Window XP-best, windows 98SE-fair,windows 2000-stable. Puppy Linux-almost as good as XP but still need some more works. There are some windows programs that I can't run on my Puppy Linux Tharpup CE- This is one of the best coming from the squad and it's fast as hell using a 14 years old computer.
     
    metastasis69, Sep 4, 2015
    #6
  7. Aunty Jack

    Aunty Jack

    Joined:
    Aug 25, 2014
    Messages:
    188
    Likes Received:
    24
    Location:
    Adelaide, in my dreams as my wife tells me.
    Hello Jody,

    Seems that you and I have tried about all of the Windows versions.

    I fully agree with you on XP 64 bit being far superior in many respects. Great pity that it's following did not expand along with XP 32 bit.

    Vista, yes, I have a liking for Vista and for quite a time ran Vista Home Basic on the "road kill" PC I built. I actually liked the desktop and Vista 64 bit. I know it is cosmetic but I preferred and still miss the simplicity of the Vista taskbar.

    Windows 7. I run Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit.on the machine my wife uses. Two years of use and never a problem. A bit too "eye candy" perhaps but to me, a natural progression of XP.

    Windows 8.1. I have no choice as the PC I use will not take any OS older. (OEM install of 8.1). With a few changes that are in-built Win 8.1 presents now as as a sort of "Ziggy Stardust" but in use, very close to the simplicity of XP and Vista.

    Agree fully with you on Windows 10. I do not want it and will stay with Win 8.1 thank you Microsoft. Rather than repeat my thoughts, I have covered Windows 10 in previous posts.

    Aunty Jack. Well, I can't retire the user name and anyway I enjoy the consternation it may cause some times. My name is Mark Hill. (ancient, over the hill as my wife sometimes says).

    Regards,

    Mark.
     
    Aunty Jack, Sep 5, 2015
    #7
  8. Aunty Jack

    CX380

    Joined:
    Oct 17, 2015
    Messages:
    8
    Likes Received:
    5
    The worse ever on endless BSODs.

    I agree the best and no issues at all.

    Windows 7 is the next best and no issues either.
     
    CX380, Oct 19, 2015
    #8
  9. Aunty Jack

    Bertha Watkins

    Joined:
    Apr 27, 2015
    Messages:
    6
    Likes Received:
    1
    Window XP is the still the best, although i need to upgrade and been using windows 8 for almost a year now.

    The worst for me is Window Vista
     
    Bertha Watkins, Nov 5, 2015
    #9
Ask a Question

Want to reply to this thread or ask your own question?

You'll need to choose a username for the site, which only take a couple of moments (here). After that, you can post your question and our members will help you out.