
Memory lane: before everyone loved Windows XP, they hated it - prajjwal
http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2014/04/memory-lane-before-everyone-loved-windows-xp-they-hated-it/
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astrodust
Apart from the absurd new theme with big, squishy looking buttons, something
you could turn off in a few clicks, it was a considerable improvement over
Windows 2000.

At the time, there really was nothing better than Windows XP.

Linux for the desktop was still a mirage on the horizon, Apple was still
shipping a clunky, barely coherent MacOS 9, and other vendors were lost in
space. Solaris? SCO? SGI? Hardly improved in half a decade when it came to use
as a general-purpose workstation.

It took Apple nearly three years to catch up to Windows XP with a workable
version of OS X, with 10.3 being their first solid release with a full suite
of applications.

It's amazing how Microsoft could produce such a popular operating system and
then completely fail to capitalize on this success in any meaningful way over
the next decade.

Windows 8.1, theming aside, is barely any different from Windows 7, which is
arguably not all that different from Windows XP.

By comparison, Apple's gone from MacOS 9 to OS X (PPC) to OS X IA32, to OS X
Intel x64 and through all that hardly anyone's noticed. Windows 64-bit, while
a thing, looks like an enormous hack based on how disorganized it is
internally, like now how it has two sets of "Program Files".

Though is it even possible for the conditions to be right for another "Windows
XP" moment for Microsoft?

------
kayman
I remember picking the classic mode under control panel settings to find
things where I was used to finding them. But the blue screen of death was
occurring far less frequently which was a big relief.

