What's the best Operating System you have ever used?

[Waffles's iconWaffles]

I have extremely find memories of both pure DOS (no actual GUI, just commands for days and days... Made me feel like a colorblind general XD) and XP (which was actually the opposite on every single way).

DOS was my reliable workhorse, doing anything asked of it instantly and without failing, so long as I punched in the right commands. It made me feel like computers were really all that, an unstoppable force ready at a moment's notice and always performing... A notion that future OSs gleefully destroyed.

Interestingly, XP was actually the first time I actually felt in control of a Windows PC and it did a lot to restore my faith on the brand after having 95 and 98 going out of their way to give me constant grief for seemingly no reason -- things that simply didn't work for either of those (despite being DESIGNED for them) just worked flawlessly on XP and I think that was the last time I ever felt right managing a computer on my own. Nothing I could throw at XP seemed to confuse or overwhelm it, despite me being unreasonable and handing it a rotten potato to work with (can you imagine letting your main HDD being only 3GB big and placing EVERYTHING on it? MADNESS!!!).

Unfortunately, I couldn't stay on either forever and the honeymoon was over terrifyingly fast, swept aside by a constant need to upgrade just to stay the same... At least Vista proved reliable without outperforming anything, but everything that came after soured me to no end with their built-in BS.

What about you?

 

[Lod 10]

CWindows 7 quando eu era criançaWindows 7 when I was a kid, I played the games and everything's fine with you too.

 

[vulonkaaz's iconvulonkaaz]

i guess GNU/Linux, just gets better over time, don't see it ever getting worse (parts of the community is getting worse but they can't take away what we already have)

current Artix + heavily customed dwm is very l33t and comfy

OpenMandriva + KDE on the laptop is very Windows vibe (when Windows was good)

only problem I have is the Artix machine having way too many updates since its Arch based and Arch tend to constantly push new things occasionally breaking stuff (I just don't do the updates most of the time), when I won't be lazy i'll switch to Devuan which i think will be perfect

(i have tried multiple versions of windows, multiple versions of BSD, non-GNU Linux distros (Alpine), GNU/Linux just works flawlessly most of the time)

 

[Clippy]

I'm very nostalgic about this one:

 

[JoueurCitoyen]

I really like SteamOS, which offers a nice interface in game mode, and a more complete desktop for working.

But this is what I call perfection:

 

[MegaDrive1987]

If I had to pick I'd say Windows XP back in the day as it was miles better than Windows ME that came preinstalled on our family PC, got a lot of memories with that OS such as being up all night on MSN Messenger, playing CS with my mates after school and obviously exploring the WWW. These days I'd have to say Linux Mint as that's what I finally switched to and couldn't be happier. Is it perfect? No of course not but compared to when I was using Windows 10/11 I have had FAR less computer trouble, not to mention the lack of telemetry/spyware that is now infesting Windows.

*EDIT*

I also love the aesthetics of Linux Mint as it reminds me of classic WIndows and not the crap they call an OS these days...

 

[fake-kun]

It's not Windows, that's for sure.

 

[Waffles's iconWaffles]

I'm very nostalgic about this one:
View attachment 128317

I love the claustrophobic look & feel.

It feels a little overwhelming at first, but I'm sure it was smooth sailing once you got your bearings.

 

[Jeff]

Windows 95, Original Macintosh from the late 80s and early 90s, and Wii.

 

[Bakuma1997]

Silly answer:

Serious Answer: Windows 7, i currently love my Windows 10, but my first PC ever got that one from factory, i still have memories of it, getting PVZ GOTY edition, playing Diner Dash and Farm Tycoon there and Purble Place keeping my 7yo. of boredom in internetless days

 

[Ikagura Ikagura]

 

[Clippy]

View attachment 128361

Rest in peace, Terry.

 

[Metroid_Hybrid]

I grew up using the original Mac OS's at my dad's, and various Windows OS's almost everywhere else, and the most stable OS I have ever used was Mac OS 8.6.6. I would actually try to overload it make it crash/lock-up/etc., and it was virtually impossible. But then my dad updated it without telling me... Now there isn't even an archive that particular OS online either..

 

[TheMinuMaster]

The systems that stuck with me were the PS2 and Windows 7. Each had its own vibe, the PS2 with that mystical, game-night energy, and Windows 7 being elegant. Two classics that still warm my heart.

 

[JustLooking123]

I have used multiple operating systems, and each was best in some ways, and not good in some other ways...

Win98 is my most beloved OS.
Man, everything in it was so simple and i knew every corner of it!
I still love its UI the best... Explorer? Win98's one is the peak!
And it's Ctrl+Alt+Del... Nothing can beat it!
But as a programmer, i know some major flaws in its internal designs, which was addressed in later versions of windows.
Still, a lot of most reliable and widely used API functions of windows are from Win3.1 era!
This is incredible that they were strong enough to last this long!

WinXP is the well balanced windows in my eye.
Many of important improvements are present in it, and it's still simple enough to be understood.
It's also the OS i used for the longest time...

Win7 and Win11 are too bloated and hard to understand...
When i say hard to understand, i mean i can't open the system folders and know the purpose of every single file!
I'm not a fan of their UI either...
Glass effect of Win7 is beautiful... but Explorer without copy paste in toolbar? What a genius idea!
And taskbar of Win11... just awful...
Yet, i was able to tweak them by performing every single trick of the book to make them mostly behave the way i want.

I have worked with Linux too!
When it comes to pro abilities, it's 10000000 light years ahead of windows...
It's quite customizable, and there's a lot of options!
Yet, it isn't without it's own hassles either...

Now which is the best?
I have no answer...

 

[Tonberry]

I’m an evil Windows-only andy. I’ve never really had neither reason nor opportunity to try other OSes. I don’t like Mac OS because I think the finder is confusing.
Never ever tried any Linux whatever.

I actually really like the way Win11 looks and feels but I agree that it brings a lot of stupid shit with it and you have to go out of your way to get rid of the most basic of bloatware.

I liked the clunky now-retro look of XP a lot. The colorful look makes me very nostalgic. I’m running a bunch of openshell and other plugins to make my PC resemble XP for that reason, but it’s of course only surface deep as it’s win11 at the end of the day.

 

[Alarond]

Best?
Depends.

Windows 7 was fantastic and beautiful as a common user.
Linux distros can be fantastic and more beautiful, if you are decided to learn and understand how many things work there. I usually used Debian, or derivatives of it, like Ubuntu first (Ubuntu 10.10 was REALLY excellent. The next version 11.04? was a massive fucked up crap, I just left: They changed a lot of very important things in the low levels of the graphical interface, and they just destroyed the stability of the system), and Linux Mint, which was the distro I preferred (after "the Ubuntu disaster").
Linux can be too much to learn for older users. Is a lot "of shit" to learn and understand. You have to be younger than 25 or 30, I suspect, to start with Linux. Then... you always can return.

Windows 11 is repulsive and gross, and I find the GUI very unstable. It remembers and feels like something as the KDE4 from 15 years ago in Linux. A lot worse than Windows 10, which was a great OS, but already too aesthetically plain and boring to be better than 7.

 

[Goshikk]

Windows 7 was perfect. It was PERFECT.
If you care about aesthetics then yeah, it might not be the best. But I don't. I only care about performance and stability. And to this day no Windows version or Linux distro has been more stable in my experience.

 

[Alarond]

Windows 7 was perfect. It was PERFECT.
If you care about aesthetics then yeah, it might not be the best. But I don't. I only care about performance and stability. And to this day no Windows version or Linux distro has been more stable in my experience.

Windows 7 was beautiful. They really did a GREAT job with it, after all the hate they got with Vista... which was a parasite of resources.
People think "Xbox" have problems, but it's really MS what it feels is falling apart during the last years.

 

[Goshikk]

Windows 7 was beautiful. They really did a GREAT job with it, after all the hate they got with Vista... which was a parasite of resources.
People think "Xbox" have problems, but it's really MS what it feels is falling apart during the last years.

That's what happens when you make a company public. Everyone pulls from a side and it tears.

 

[PhrawzT]

I agree with the general consensus that Windows XP was a great OS and I felt really in control of what computer could do and how you wanted it to run. Anything more moderrn has too much garbage running in the background.

I have a mini PC running Windows 10 and the CPU and RAM sits at 50% all the time even when nothing is running.