All time favorite operating system

[Tim]

Windows 8.1. My next favorite will be Windows 10. Embrace technological advances, please.

 

[nageov3t]

I think Windows XP for how revolutionary it felt at the time (crashes/BSOD's went from regular occurrences to rare events)... I still have computers running it today (though obviously nothing I use regularly; my desktop is Win8.1 and my daily driver laptop is running Win7)

I was in college at the time, so I didn't really have any reason to play with Windows 2000 (and by the time I entered the corporate world, it was already being replaced with Win 2k3)

 

[Dr. Zaus]

OSX 10 has been amazing.

 

[Jaskalas]

I'm using Win7, therefore Win7 is the best.

I'd say the task bar and interface were seriously upgraded over XP. So was Windows update and other features that are just a lot more user friendly. This is the best incarnation of the OS standard.

 

[Linflas]

Windows 8.1. My next favorite will be Windows 10. Embrace technological advances, please.

Technological advances are not the same as UI changes that make no sense. Windows 8 may have many under the hood advances in technology but they are worthless if the UI is so bad people don't want to use it.

 

[irishScott]

Arch Linux. Roll-your-own made sensible, and if it's not in a repository it's probably available through the AUR.

 

[poofyhairguy]

Windows 8.1. My next favorite will be Windows 10. Embrace technological advances, please.

Embracing technological advances in 2015 equals buying an Android tablet. Windows, even the newest one, is a legacy platform. So why not use the Windows you like best?

 

[KMFJD]

GEOS ftw!

 

[The Day Dreamer]

Windows 7. Pretty balanced in all aspects. Previously it was Windows XP, though.

 

[Tim]

Technological advances are not the same as UI changes that make no sense. Windows 8 may have many under the hood advances in technology but they are worthless if the UI is so bad people don't want to use it.

To me, technological advances and optimal system performance (they go hand in hand) are more important than being to lazy to spend the little time necessary to figure out a new UI, and making it work for me the way I want to.

Technological advances, embrace them. Whining about subtle (or not subtle) changes in a UI (which you can easily learn, or change to your liking) is just pathetic.

 

[norseamd]

Not sufficient hate for Windows ME in this discussion.

 

[Ichinisan]

Not sufficient hate for Windows ME in this discussion.

Meh. My main problem with WinME is that I usually liked to push Esc to see what's going on behind the boot screen in Win9x, but tapping Esc at just the right time while WinME is booting would make the system show a BSoD.

Every. Single. WinME. System.

 

[boomhower]

For me, OS X. I'll never go back to windows for my personal machine. For Windows it's Windows 7 easily. Still use it daily and it's a solid OS. My wife has Windows 8 and I hate it with a passion.

 

[Ichinisan]

Acer Computer Explorer or "ACE"

...but not really. It's basically just an approximation of the Windows 3.1 interface, set to load automatically in full-screen on top of Windows 95A -- so it traps you in some kind of "operating system" shell and you have no idea what Windows 95 even looks like.

My first Windows PC in 1996 had this junk. I think Acer just didn't want to re-train all their phone support reps on the differences with Windows 95.

 

[Dr. Zaus]

Acer Computer Explorer or "ACE"

...but not really. It's basically just an approximation of the Windows 3.1 interface, set to load automatically in full-screen on top of Windows 95A -- so it traps you in some kind of "operating system" shell and you have no idea what Windows 95 even looks like.

My first Windows PC in 1996 had this junk. I think Acer just didn't want to re-train all their phone support reps on the differences with Windows 95.

Wouldn't you call something like this that turned windows 8 back into windows 7 a feature?

 

[Ketchup]

Answer to the OP's question: Windows 7.

Honorary mention: Windows XP. Windows XP was the best leap-in-the-right-direction Microsoft has ever made. I don't think there will be another.

 

[MongGrel]

Windows 8.1. My next favorite will be Windows 10. Embrace technological advances, please.

This, myself also.

 

[Phoenix86]

Technological advances, embrace them. Whining about subtle (or not subtle) changes in a UI (which you can easily learn, or change to your liking) is just pathetic.

In general, sure, in specific, absolutelyfucking no. see: WinME, Vista, and 8. It's wonderful that you adapt easily, but not everyone else can. "easily" learning a new UI can take hours with no benefit, none. Will my accountants be able to process more AP entries due to the new UI in 8? No. Will it generate at least one "how do I do..." issue? Fuck yeah it will.

Let's not get into usability. Sorry, drivers for ME just don't exist for that device, but hey EMBRACE THIS SHIT! I could come up with real world examples all day long. I bet you can't give me one compelling reason to use metro, which is going away for desktops (because it was shit).

 

[Rubycon]

IRIX on SGI. :awe:

For MS most definitely Win 2k.
I absolutely abhor "candy" on an OS. XP looked childish.
The animations in Vista forward, blech! Horrible.
Now they want to make everything white like bleached out making us blind. Office 2013 anyone?

 

[Mixolydian]

IRIX on SGI. :awe:

YES!!!

 

[Maximilian]

Windows 8.1. My next favorite will be Windows 10. Embrace technological advances, please.

Yes, "advances". We must embrace them!

Not sufficient hate for Windows ME in this discussion.

I liked how quick it was to reinstall. Also the install wizard had an actual wizard in it :awe:

I think his name was merlin. I saw him a lot because I would need to reinstall windows ME a lot since it died a lot...

XP was a godsend!

 

[Elixer]

Killer file system.

It will get you 15 to life!