Memory lane: Before everyone loved Windows XP, they hated it

[A Guy]

Lol, reminds me of the early days of 8

Memory lane: Before everyone loved Windows XP, they hated it | Ars Technica

A Guy

 

[Computer0304]

And possibly Win7?

 

[Torah Lishmah]

The biggest problem with Windows XP was that it was Microsoft's first operating system to feature Product Activation, the licensing system that tied product keys to hardware fingerprints. Gone were the days of buying one copy of the software and installing it on multiple machines. With Windows XP, every system would need its own copy.

I never had that problem. Perhaps it was because I bought an OEM installation disk [I don't know] but I had XP Pro installed on 4 different machines using the same installation disk, and never had a single problem with activation. I must have done around a hundred clean installs too, playing around with slipstreaming the service packs.

I don't think there is any comparison between XP, and Windows 8. Unless Windows 8 comes out with a service pack comparable to XP's legendary SP2 [which will NEVER happen] that allows you to change the GUI from Metro to a GUI that is actually productivity friendly, Windows 8 will never receive the same popularity that XP SP2 did. Let's face it, Windows 8 will always suck BIG TIME! Unless, of course, you have it on a tablet which is what Windows 8 was designed for. They never should have started putting it on desktops. Biggest blunder Microsoft has ever made IMHO.

 

[Fantail]

Bring back OS/2 Warp or I'll release the flying monkeys.

 

[Joan Archer]

I still have my retail copy of XP even though I no longer have a machine running it, the one it used to run on came with WinME and is sitting in the corner of my office minus it's hard drive.

 

[Ranger4]

There is no doubt that looking back often surprises people who may have forgotten exactly how they felt years ago about something.

I remember when Windows 3.1 was the rage & how I hated the persistent crashing that would occur when it ran low on resources, as I was using Access, Word & Winfax in a business environment & transferring from one program to the other. Microsoft said increasing RAM would prevent that, but after adding RAM to 32Mb, which was very expensive at the time, but the problem still plagued me. The only solution was to Save frequently.

In frustration I even used a Beta copy of Windows 95 & I ordered a copy of Windows 95 to be delivered as soon as it came out.