Windows XP was just right. A perfect balance of performance and functionality.

Everything less complex feels too impractical, everything more complex feels too uncontrollable.

When using XP, I was confident I could get the job done, yet I knew what every process in the task manager did. It’s not the case with 7, let alone 10/11. I don’t know what happens under the hood there at all. Maybe custom Linux distros qualify too, but they’re unapproachable by laypeople. You have to be a geek to use them effectively.

Windows XP struck just the right balance between functionality, simplicity and compatibility. Too bad the era is gone in favor of opaque surveillance.

i liked 2k and oddly most of my experience with XP was putting my rootkits on them and laughing at people's XP which just chucked out errors at them all the time. I didn't even cause that. the OS was just plain broken. poor fucker.

but yeah everything after 7 was cancer. 7 was alright to me. I didn't like restriction but it was pretty. vista was a fucking slog. and 10 is just malware. there's an 11 now? 🤷

I rather target "the web" than windows. I have the same opinion on Android. and I've never thought about apple users but probably it would work there too

web is new java on 3 million devices

I don‘t agree. I‘m a Windows user since Windows 95 and I see the difference between the early versions and Windows XP. But from Windows XP to Windows, they are almost the same.

Win XP wasn‘t less complicated than the newer versions. Ok, there is this Frankenstein monster of different UI styles mixed together in Win 10, which became better and more consistent in Win 11, but it hardly counts because it‘s a minor thing.

Some things became even better and less complicated after Win XP, like multi screen management or window management and tabs in system applications. Also sound management/mixer was a blessing and it came after XP, IIRC.

Most of the complicated and annoying things were already there since the very early version of Windows and were not introduced after WinXP.

Windows XP was a bit heavy on the beginning too for regular PC but my favorite too

You mean Windows 2000, the most stable Windows NT version implementing all the "new" ideas inspired by UNIX and the most minimalist classic UI. But Windows 7 wasn't that bad either, at least if you didn't directly compare it with a (less customizable) MacOS or a (less out-of-the-box non-technical "user-friendly" but much faster developer experience) Linux system from the same time.

While it had more holes than my socks, I actually liked xp. It was clear and robust and stable enough for what it was.

However, I liked w7 as well if not more. It hadbthe looks, the novel twist, was stable and still seemed innocent enough to suspect anything fishy going on.

W10 onwards is a downhill to me. To be fair, I only used w10 for like half a year, until I got a permission to go all-linux on my work pc. Nevertheles, that's my impression.

I'm leaving Vista out, bcz it was a loud fart mid-conversation - we all want to pretend it didn't happen

@Lensflare XP had a mix of UI styles as well. I'm not surprised if you can find some configuration UI in windows 11 that's been the same since win95.

@electrineer format flash drive window

You had to make sure that the speakers weren't set on full volume otherwise your whole city would know that you booted your computer.

Ah, fun times.