Was old Windows Really that good?

[Blueskunky Blueskunky]

So recently I've reached my limit with Windows 11 & am currently planning to switch over to Linux.
The pop ups, overheating, lag, unreliability, Edge being the worst web browser to ever touch this planet, applications refusing to work, etc.
We all know how bad (modern) Window is but, my parents & people on the internet born last millennium won't shut up about the so called "glory" of old Windows, like 95, XP, & 7.
Being near "perfect" operating systems, which I don't believe in the slightest, since my only exposure to Windows (so far) has been 11.
So that's why I am asking this question, has Windows ever been good?

 

[Moreno909]

My dad and I used mostly XP and 7 when I was a kid. I imagine that for the tech-savvy, Windows was never perfect, but it was good enough for the average user.

Nowadays it is way worse with all the bloat.

I used Win11Debloat on my notebook, but it didn't change much.

 

[Stingy Perry Stingy Perry]

Everyone who used the old versions of MS Windows would agree that their less problematic and more productive than whatever 11 is. Though I would say I never encountered any issues but they were tolerable to say the least.

Though we kinda got glimpse of what would come when Vista was released. That's why you can see almost everyone YouTube who restores old PCs stay clear of Vista whenever they need to put a Windows OS on them.

 

[silada]

My dad and I used mostly XP and 7 when I was a kid. I imagine that for the tech-savvy, Windows was never perfect, but it was good enough for the average user.

Nowadays it is way worse with all the bloat.

I used Win11Debloat on my notebook, but it didn't change much.

It is so funny to see messages like my dad used XP and 7, when in fact, I used to format my family PC and install Windows XP and 7 for a long time until I got burned out of doing it. Windows 7 is the XP framework, with Vista pretty glass on top. Very reliable, I've managed to migrate to Win11 and get used to it, but 7 was more sturdy. TBH it is been a long time I don't get any blue screen or anything of the sort. Maybe I'll switch to Linux next time I clean my PC.

 

[Ikagura]

Win7's Aero was a strain on the ram but it was a good OS.

 

[RageBurner]

Good isn't the word. Win XP, 7 and 10 (if updated and with the telemetry patched out) don't actually get in your way by syphoning performance with back end junk you didn't ask for and/or aren't even aware it's there.

Windows 11 is a travesty that condenses everything wrong with big corporation mentality - it's not an OS, it's a piece of software that turns you into a living asset for a corporation.

 

[Retro Doomer]

I liked Windows 7 which was mostly my Operational System I used
until later where I jumped straight to Windows 10 with a New Computer

Windows 7 kiddo those where the times

 

[Kremiso]

well, here i have a 2010 PC with 8GB RAM and Windows 7

and a 2022 8GB RAM Windows 11 notebook

and with the first one i can run a lot more games than the second; win11 eats almost all the RAM, doing nothing :p

 

[Zerohour2k12]

Win7 still does the work for me and I have yet to experience the newer ones. Downside is, that I'm limited the the games and apps I could run. I think I'll try 10 first if the need to switch comes.

 

[Onicat]

Windows XP-tan is the best OS-tan ever! :)

But jokes aside, the old operating systems were more user-friendly than corporate-oriented. The old operating systems simply... worked. They didn’t try to stuff you with all sorts of “improvements” or “innovations” or even connect you to some sort of LLM hivemind (using your hard-earned money).

Sure, they weren’t without their problems. Mostly because software development wasn’t as streamlined as it is now (lol). And there were constant shortages or conflicts with drivers or hardware security keys etc. But the vast majority of users never even encountered these issues. Old operating systems just… worked.

 

[mangamannn]

I am using windows since windows 3.11 for working groups, and believe perfect is a lie, windows 7 is good, fast, but have the same problem windows 8,10,11, the problem is windows defender (if you remove defender your system, not diference in performance) and others problens windows more moderns not have.

old windows versions 8 below not have the problem forced update (microsoft force update, if you like or not) is horrible shutdow your machine and go sleep but no you have wait update finish (some time have a very large time to complete)

another ugly problem modern windows is you pause what you are working and go to pee and return and windows closed what software you are working and force update windows or removed for suspect virus.

Nowadsays my main machine (desktop all-one) run windows 8.1 and run flawless for me. (Only problem are microsft forcing new sofytware run only in windows 11, but software legacy help)

if need run software only run windows 11 have notebook for the job.

 

[Pandaprewmaster325]

Your only experience with windows is windows 11 and you call yourself a gamer? Shame on you man..........

I used XP/7/10 and i can tell you that XP is magnificent , everything about it screams character i mean you get a cool dog helping you search for stuff

You get that cool space ball game , it's just PEAK (i heard the US marine corp still uses XP but they have a special version of the OS specifically for them)

Windows 7 is just much more smooth than XP , if only they didn't stop it's support i assure you 99% of PC users would have still used win7

I used 10 from time to time on other people PC and such , the "updating" screen when shutting down was always a thing and the constant updates it had seemed annoying at times but still a solid OS from what i know

So far i only heard bad things about 11 , the thing i wonder about however.......where is windows 9???

 

[JPZ]

I liked how Windows 3.11 was kept separate to DOS. Made it easier to use the command prompt.

This changed after Windows 95, where DOS was no longer used.

So if you like using a command prompt, then the old Windows gave you a choice to still use it.

There was something nice about its simplicity, though at the time I thought not having to use DOS anymore was a big upgrade.

 

[Nebulon_Galaxy]

It was alright like all other Windows OS. The ones that complained that ME or Vista were bad never had it when it came out. No OS came out of launch in working condition. People don't remember that XP service pack 2 was bad cause it couldn't run windows 98 programs successfully.

 

[ct9983]

Everyone who used the old versions of MS Windows would agree that their less problematic and more productive than whatever 11 is. Though I would say I never encountered any issues but they were tolerable to say the least.

Though we kinda got glimpse of what would come when Vista was released. That's why you can see almost everyone YouTube who restores old PCs stay clear of Vista whenever they need to put a Windows OS on them.

God I remember how pissed everyone was about how much RAM Vista used. And I remember it being slow as ass too

 

[kbcinharoxa kbcinharoxa]

The first computer we had at home was a potato running Windows XP... but it was our potato, and it was actually pretty nice to use.
Nowadays, Windows 11 feels annoying. I switched to Linux once, but I don't use it anymore because I didn't have enough time to learn it properly. I kept running into a lot of errors that I didn't know how to fix. Maybe it's because I'm still a newbie, but that's how it went.

And honestly, Windows 11 has way too much advertising.

 

[SamanthaSamantha's icon]

No, 95 and 98 were unstable crap.

XP was excellent.

2000 and ME decided that the previous generation wasn't unstable enough and overcorrected.

I never liked Longhorn/Vista, and it clashed visually.

Seven Home was essentially a scam with how limited it was.

Eight had an identity crisis.

Ten blue-screened on me the very first day.

I have had no experience with Eleven (Thank God).

 

[Evaccaneer Doom]

Yes

 

[contrail_]

It's not that win xp and 7 were 'perfect'. Rather, they were the baseline. They are the operating systems to which most people will compare every other OS they try, and for a good reason.
Windows xp was fine, as long as you reinstalled it once every year or so. It ran stuff, because stuff was mainly made with it in mind. If there were problems, the respective solutions weren't overly difficult to implement.
This is a subjective opinion, but windows 7 took care of most of windows xp's shortcomings, so you only had to reinstall it once every 3-5 years. In my opinion it's the best OS microsoft has produced to this day.

I personally drew the line at windows 10, because I didn't appreciate it having both the old settings and control panel as win7, and some new oc bullshit bolted on, half of which seemed to overlap with the classic settings. Updates and bloat which, even when removed, would return with the next update, were also annoying.
But the main problem with windows xp and 7 is that they're mostly 'good enough' as far as operational systems go. They get the job done for an average user, but they also keep you in a comfort zone, where you have no incentive to improve your understanding of computers. Frankly, I'm kind of thankful microsoft made all the subsequent windows operational systems worse, because that gave me incentive to get into linux. If Windows 10 and 11 were as good as 7, I would have probably remained on this stagnant platform for longer.
Also, I'd rather people didn't all adopt linux. There's a certain threshold. After an OS becomes popular enough, suddenly the amount of threats and shitty software for it increases exponentially. Enshittification comes with mass adaption. Once there are enough noobs on a platform, it becomes worth it to bad actors. It's not that linux operational systems are impervious to viruses, it's just that they weren't worth it.

 

[Tortuga]

Compared to win 11 yes

 

[Mpampakas]

Short answer No. Long answer No.

 

[Zerpina]

So recently I've reached my limit with Windows 11 & am currently planning to switch over to Linux.
The pop ups, overheating, lag, unreliability, Edge being the worst web browser to ever touch this planet, applications refusing to work, etc.
We all know how bad (modern) Window is but, my parents & people on the internet born last millennium won't shut up about the so called "glory" of old Windows, like 95, XP, & 7.
Being near "perfect" operating systems, which I don't believe in the slightest, since my only exposure to Windows (so far) has been 11.
So that's why I am asking this question, has Windows ever been good?

I myself used Windows XP and Windows 7 quite a bit in my younger days...

Now, no OS is perfect, not even Linux... I know... blasphemy, but it's true. XP and 7 had their problems, random crashes or BSODs (Blue Screen of Death) but they were, above all else, not RAM hogs, not bloated, etc., etc., etc. They are the polar opposite of Windows 11 in every respect. You didn't have to have a GOD DAMN Microsoft account to use Notepad.

If you had, let's say, Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit, you could use 16GB of RAM, and after booting up, if I remember correctly it only took about 1GB of that to run itself... it might have been less. It's been well over a decade since I used Windows 7 Home Premium, but I digress. It wasn't eating half of what you had just to idle. Games ran absolutely fine... yes, you may have had to tweak them when first installing, but after that, there really weren't problems with the OS.

So, was 7 or XP perfect?

Not even close. But it was far, FAR, better than current Windows by thousands of leaps and bounds. Microsoft after Windows 7, kind of went backward in how good their operating systems were.

 

[Graw]

I've only used windows 11 a little bit but it seems pretty awful. Windows 8 was pretty bad. Windows 7 and XP were decent. I didn't really like Vista. 95-ME had a lot of constant issues and annoyances. I barely remember enough of 3.1 to say if it was good or not."