Do you consider windows systems in general to be good?

[cunawarit]

Great:
XP, NT4, 2003

Good:
2000, 3.11

Bad:
98

Terrible:
95, Me

I am hoping that Vista will be better than ever! From what I have seen it is, the Unix like security model seems much better and admin is going to be easier with PowerShell. Vista is looking good.

[Rhubarb]

@cunawarit
Yes Vista is looking good.
But having tried RC1, I don't like anything about it. Even the new security model is poor - it won't stop users from accepting malware to run. Some software that did work with XP now has to be run in software compatibility mode (and the executable has to be on a writable medium, like a hard disk, not a CD or DVD).
It can't even run a java applet without temporarily disabling the aero interface.
So to sum it all up, vista looks ok.
But performs like xp, but with more annoyances.
Personally my experience with windows me was good, didn't have any (many) crashing problems with it at all. But it's old and quite useless now.

[Somenoob]

It's compltetly aimed at the casual user, so it's easy to understand why it's dominant. In my honest opinion it's not that good, endless security problems and it's occasionaly a bit of a resource hog.

[nocturn]

Ok, these are my personal feelings off course.

I find Windows XP a lousy OS. Not just because it is commercial because that would also apply to OS X and OS/2 (in the past).

I have worked with my share of OS's in my lifetime, including anything from MS from DOS 4 (I think) up, OS/2, Solaris, HP-UX, Reliant Unix, VMS, some BSD's and for a big part Linux.

I liked a lot of them, including OS/2, but WinXP just doesn't cut it compared to any of them. My specific gripes are instability, lack of any kind of package management, insecure design and practices.

The biggest gripe to day is control. I have the feeling that MS has more control over an XP machine then the owner does (WGA, DRM, ...) and I do not want such a system.

Linux on the other hand has united a lot of the strong points of all the others while being Free (as in freedom).

[cunawarit]

It's compltetly aimed at the casual user, so it's easy to understand why it's dominant. In my honest opinion it's not that good, endless security problems and it's occasionaly a bit of a resource hog.

I wouldn’t say Windows is completely aimed at the casual user, XP Home is. But a lot of the business Microsoft makes is from the corporate desktop market, which they dominate. I do think they really are the top players in terms of collaborative technologies for the office environment; this is one of the reasons stopping Linux from penetrating this market more successfully.

Also lets not forget Windows 2003 Server, it is true that Linux and Unix dominate the server market but Windows is no small player. It does have a significant slice of the pie, much greater than Linux has of the desktop market.

[knucklehead2354]

I don't think that Windows is a bad OS at all. It's just that product activation reactivation (when upgrading the motherboard) has gotten annoying. I really don't like Microsoft's DRM.

[argie]

Windows 98SE served me fine while I had it. I find Ubuntu easier to use though.

However, I have this big -ve attached to cost, (I got my Win98 disc with my computer), so XP and Vista are all "bad".

Actually, I could buy a fancy computer with the money for Vista Ultimate.

[FISHERMAN]

The WindowsNT-based-ones(2000, XP,..) are good(though I have my doubts about the upcoming Vista).
The Win9x-ones(95,98,Me) were a disaster.

[justin whitaker]

Windows systems, out side of ME, have never given me much problem.

Although AVG found a trojan on my system in this morning's AV sweep, so that's a little disheartening.

I mostly find the activation annoying, but not the OS overall.

[Reshin]

Uh, am I really the only one who thinks that ME was the best from 9X-series? (might be 'cause I skipped 98se)