R.I.P.
Posted on 04/05/2021 1:35:41 PM PDT by upchuck
After over three decades of Microsoft Windows success, there have been some clear failures along the way. With that in mind, we’ve picked the six worst versions of Windows. All of these made us want to stick to older, better versions of Windows, or use alternatives like Macs or Linux instead.
The Ranking Criteria Most of us know a bad version of Windows when we see it. Maybe we’ve experienced personal pain in wrestling with its bugs, or lost time reinstalling it over and over again, or heard stories about how often it’s crashed.
In developing this list, we considered the following metrics: How much people hated each version (appearances on other worst-of lists), how poorly it sold, how slowly it was adopted, how bad its reviews were, the length of its lifespan on the market, and our own personal experiences with the software. For fun, we also googled “Windows [x] Sucks,” and tallied up the results.
Honestly, there’s no hard science to this, so you might not agree with our exact ranking, but we can confidently predict this: If you ran at least one of these versions of Windows, you wanted to upgrade.
I gave up trying to ‘adapt’ to Mint Cinnamon (after they deserted KDE).. Tried Manjaro for a bit (hated it.. it’s ARch Linux).. Finally settled with Kubuntu (KDE).
So far, no problems.
Most FReepers would have never used it, since it was NT (for server use).
Back in the day when memory chips came in a plastic tube, they were giving away Windows 1.0 for free.
"It literally never caused me a problem, no blue screens, no driver issues, nothing."
DOS is still there, underneath....................
True. And when Win 10 uploaed a new version for me last week all my Win 7 games disappeared and when I searched I found they had a second extension, mui. Couldn't figure out how to easily get around it to make them load so was about to load new Win 10 games when one of the online suggestions was to check a folder called OldWindows.
Games were there and I copied the games folder to the current games folder and it showed the correct files without the mui extension. Great I thought, it would work. Nope, still missing a dll file. Went back to OldWindows and copied it to same location in the current OS. Now all the games work with even the previously saved scores and I have saved them to the start menu screen.
R.I.P.
Every first version sucked. Win 98 junk. Win 98 second edition ok. 95 sucked, 95b ok. Win 7 buggy. Win 7 service pack 2, ok. Always thought it was funny how they’d use a different name/numbering system for each second version. B, 2nd edition, service pack 2 etc.
Basically if you get the first version, you’re a beta tester and you get to pay for the pleasure. Same with the first year model of a car/truck. It will be buggy. They usually have it straightened out by the third year. Chevy Trailblazer was a real good example. Many lemons in the first 2-3 years and it was major, engine or transmission failures.
We are all unpaid MS beta testers.
When I see my wife or one of the kids going through that 15 minutes restart, I just shake my head. I run Kubuntu 20.04 on a 7 year old laptop. It’s fast as can be, takes anything I can throw at it and rarely needs to restart after an update and even when it does, it’s almost as fast and a regular restart, 15 seconds maybe. Updates can come every few days up to every few weeks and I can install them at my leisure. Never get a surprise.
Since I don’t need to run any proprietary business software, this system works for me. I do have a tablet that has windows only software on it. Auto repair info and scan tool. I run win 7 Pro on that. Win 7 Pro is a decent one. I have updates completely turned off and the tablet never connects to the internet. Runs as fast as day one because of not updating it. Windows has always tended to get slower and slower with each update. By the time it’s running at a crawl, oh look, there’s a new version of windows out. Forced obsolescence/upgrades.
Yeah but that butterfly was so cute /s
It was seeing Win 8 home screen that made me switch
Yeah, do a search for “install linux on UEFI system”. I did it on my wife and daughter’s UEFI laptops. Rufus is the best.
I think I still have win 98 on floppy. 31 of them but I’ve had them stored in a camper so I’m sure the heat got to them and doubt they would work anymore. Installation from floppies was a very long process and often failed.
Kubuntu was buggy for several years but they finally got it down pat. Then again, it might have been Plasma that was buggy but they got it fixed. I love the full screen menu. If you right click on the menu icon, there’s an option to choose alternative. Application Dashboard is the name of the full screen version. Kubuntu 20.04 has been very smooth and fast for me.
Been there... Whole thing is why did they do that without your permission or without explaining what they did and how to repair it? MS decided for you that you didn’t need those anymore, and should submit to their proprietary cloud and apps. Arrogance and disrespect against the user is an understatement. More than the OS issues I hate THAT arrogance and disrespect even more. :)
Yep, Rufus formats the stick to boot with either/or. And that setting option is already set as both by default.
I once had PhotoShop v3.01 on 35 floppies, and it was an all afternoon event to get it installed. Heh.
The newest Mint is very stable and all the apps the cinnamon comes with work as they should.
It really is worth revisiting for a test drive. :)
Or Windows NT.
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