What was the worst OS you have ever used?

alphanumeric said:

It seems to be love or hate as far as Vista goes. Some people had nothing but trouble with Vista so I tend to cut Vista bashers "some" slack.{sic} In the end it's just somebodies opinion so take it for what its worth.

I did and many a time it wasn't worth much at all


For those who actually tried it for more than 5 mins, if they even tried it at all and not on some minimum specced machine - and still had legitimate reasons why they didn't like it, I had no problems with.

The ones I had issues with the most were those who had never actually used it (the "I heard from a friend who knows about computers and they said it sucks" crowd) who were the most vocal detractors and could be found every bloody where sprouting "Vista sucks".

In some ways, Vista was a comedy of errors - It arrived very late and it wasn't the much hyped Longhorn that people were promised.

To fuel that already ignited disappointment, it required almost mandatory hardware upgrades to run smoothly and device manufacturers were caught napping in terms of product support.


It was a band wagon hate machine OS.



Sure, those who installed, or used it on low specced machines were in a world of hurt because it was brutal to use on some machines.

Those who had problems with components/peripherals not working had a right to be annoyed - but often their annoyance was directed in the wrong direction.

It still happens with Seven to a lesser degree - "component X only has XP drivers and doesn't work, ergo MS and Seven sucks" - whereas the real culprit is the manufacturer who fails to support their product for a variety of reasons.


So the percentage of home users who actually had valid excuses and deserved to have 'some slack cut' was rather small in comparison the vociferous majority of detractors who unfortunately never did manage to learn to STFU.

I managed to make Vista work for almost 2 full years, with very little difficulty. But I had a very powerful computer. "Vista ready" computers being sold with 1GB of RAM ... I don't know, in my experience helping friends work with such computers, they were total disasters.

I used 95, 98, and ME minimally. I didn't start really using a computer until XP came out, and I'd have to say that's the worst OS I've ever used. IMO, it was short on innovation and behind its time. You can imagine how I feel about people still using it 9 years later. I've found that many people (non-enthusiasts) use Windows just because it's the only option besides Mac, which they would prefer but can't afford (these are people who wouldn't know what Linux is either). Most computer users I talk to seem to have a generally negative view of both Windows and Microsoft, and I think that's largely because most of these users are on the very-outdated XP. The average home computer user isn't going to know how old XP is, they're not going to follow new Windows developments, and if they were they probably stopped when Vista flopped. To most people (still over 60% I believe), Windows IS XP. And if they have a problem with it, they're going to blame MS even though the problem was most likely fixed in Service Packs or new releases.

I feel that the reputation of both MS and Windows would soar if more people's mental image was of Windows 7 rather than XP.

Now, that was an enormous rant... but felt good!

DirtRider said:

For me it must have been Windows 3.1

3.1 for me as well.