Least Favourite OS

[Lacius]

The worst OS was Windows 8/8.1. It intentionally removed functionality from the OS, while a lot of Vista's problems boil down to driver compatibility and systems being sold with low hardware specs.

 

[SG854]

Windows 98

 

[AmandaRose]

AmigaOS 3.1. 4

 

[linuxares]

Windows95 version A to C, Windows 98, Windows Me, Windows XP (until SP2, but better with SP3), Vista (until SP2), Windows 8 (fuck that UI).
Some Linux distros.

 

[Xzi]

The worst OS was Windows 8/8.1. It intentionally removed functionality from the OS, while a lot of Vista's problems boil down to driver compatibility and systems being sold with low hardware specs.

True, but I felt like WIn8 was at least half decent for tablets, whereas Vista was good for nothing. Plus owning a copy of Win8 got you a free upgrade to Win10. Not that I ever bought a copy of the OS itself, but I did buy a couple of (used) devices with an installation/key included.

 

[DaFixer]

Windows 98, Windows Me, Windows Vista and MacOS.

 

[subcon959]

I kinda have a lot of nostalgia for it now, but memory managing MSDOS was a total nightmare sometimes.. especially with the bizarre differences between extended and expanded memory.

 

[MetallicKaiser]

why Chrome OS? the way it updates is seamless and good. its lightweight. the hardware can be cheap.

i swear if you want something to just surf the web. you cant go wrong.

Not wrong. Just my least favorite for what I want out of an OS, not objectively the worst.

 

[Lacius]

True, but I felt like WIn8 was at least half decent for tablets, whereas Vista was good for nothing. Plus owning a copy of Win8 got you a free upgrade to Win10. Not that I ever bought a copy of the OS itself, but I did buy a couple of (used) devices with an installation/key included.

Vista definitely had its glitches, but it introduced a lot of important features we use today. Windows 7 is, under the hood, practically the same OS with bugfixes. Windows 7 received the same free upgrade to Windows 10 offer in part because Windows 8 was such a disastrous failure that nobody wanted it.

If we don't take into account security or custom tweaks, I'd choose Vista over Windows 8 any day. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to load the Windows Vista default wallpaper onto my Windows 10 machine, and I'm going to enable the Vista bubble screensaver that still exists on Windows 10, just to be nostalgic.

 

[tglaria]

Everything Apple have done since the original OSX first debuted 20ish years ago. When it was OSX vs XP It was an OS I'd much rather use over Windows any day of the week. Each subsequent update makes it more of a hobbled experience that you have such limited control over, and is so massively resource hungry, that (if it weren't for the fact that Macs are the 'defacto' industry standard in my line of work) I'd happily never touch one ever again!
By way of comparrison, the Mac I'm currently using with its 2 x 2.4 GHz 6-core and 12Gb of ram is (on paper) at least twice as good as my home, Win10, PC with its 4-core 3GHz and 8Gb of ram... yet the windows machine can perform the exact same tasks up to four times quicker and with far fewer crashes.

What work do you do that you need a Mac?

 

[Ryab]

If you have an operating system you absolutely cannot stand, please post about it below.

Mine definitely has to be Windows 8, because of its excessive focus on touch-controls. Microsoft managed to fuck up the START MENU; how can you possibly screw up something so simple‽ They turned a nice, simple list of pinned programs into a separate unwieldy screen filled with boxes of mismatched sizes (some were squares, some were rectangles, with seemingly no reason given as to the size, strewn practically haphazardly around). It was immensely ugly and not at all convenient.

I'm still baffled why Microsoft decided to keep some of that repulsive bullshit when transitioning to Windows 10, with those intrusive "Live Tiles" on the restored Start Menu. WHY GATES WHY

Windows 7 > Windows 10 > Windows 8, and I've barely used 7!

OS that I have personally used? probably windows 10 honestly.
Though I would say ever made I would either say Windows ME or some older OS like Lindows.

 

[tglaria]

Reading the answers, I beleive the question shoul be rewritten as "worst pc OS".

I don't think I've read more than a couple of complaints of OS outside personal computers.

 

[AkiraKurusu]

Reading the answers, I beleive the question shoul be rewritten as "worst pc OS".

I don't think I've read more than a couple of complaints of OS outside personal computers.

The Wii OS was a pain to navigate due to dysfunctional motion controls, and the Xbox 360's OS was cluttered and unwieldy, as was the Xbox One's OS.

The 3DS OS was simplicity itself; since it had a 'zoom' feature, it could 'zoom in' to be a line of identically-sized squares with the app's info above the selected one, or zoomed out to show multiple rows at once, with max-zoom-out being a whole screen of tiny squares (my preferred view). Simple, and elegant. The Wii U only had one view, but it was still elegant enough; the Wii was a step behind, visually, with CRT-screen-shaped boxes instead of neat squares.
The PS3 OS was a nice, simple horizontal line of options, which expanded vertically when hovered over; simple enough. The PS4 OS just had one large horizontal line for everything, so it was a step down for sure; folders helped group and separate the useful stuff and the useless junk.

Compare those to 360's and One's OSes, which were just ugly and messy and poorly-thought-through. I bet the Windows 8 Start screen took inspiration from the 360, and that's NOT a good thing.

 

[duwen]

What work do you do that you need a Mac?

Artworking, design, and pre-press for print.

 

[Alexander1970]

Least Favourite OS

Honestly - None.
All Operating Systems have their "Rationale for Existence".

 

[tglaria]

The Wii OS was a pain to navigate due to dysfunctional motion controls, and the Xbox 360's OS was cluttered and unwieldy, as was the Xbox One's OS.

The 3DS OS was simplicity itself; since it had a 'zoom' feature, it could 'zoom in' to be a line of identically-sized squares with the app's info above the selected one, or zoomed out to show multiple rows at once, with max-zoom-out being a whole screen of tiny squares (my preferred view). Simple, and elegant. The Wii U only had one view, but it was still elegant enough; the Wii was a step behind, visually, with CRT-screen-shaped boxes instead of neat squares.
The PS3 OS was a nice, simple horizontal line of options, which expanded vertically when hovered over; simple enough. The PS4 OS just had one large horizontal line for everything, so it was a step down for sure; folders helped group and separate the useful stuff and the useless junk.

Compare those to 360's and One's OSes, which were just ugly and messy and poorly-thought-through. I bet the Windows 8 Start screen took inspiration from the 360, and that's NOT a good thing.

I had all of those in mind (except the PS3, didn't use it that much, used the PSP more but it's kind of the same), and do not think they were bad for what they were made for.

Compare that with the first versions of "smart" TVs, slow, limited apps, could't configure anything in the media player, no thumbnails for photos, no real codec compatibility...
Can't really compare that with those gaming consoles.

BTW, I don't think Win8 took inspiration from Xbox360, but Xbox360 took inspiration from an idea of using a single interface for all devices, and Windows8 took it further when trying to be similar with WindowsPhone (wich I loved).
I don't think it was a bad idea, the bad idea was to force the change and remove start menu/desktop option.

 

[tglaria]

Artworking, design, and pre-press for print.

Is there specific software that can't run on linux or windows?
or is it just the workplace that uses mac and nothing else?

 

[tglaria]

Honestly - None.
All Operating Systems have their "Rationale for Existence".

Well, when they don't do what they're supposed to do, I think you can dislike them.
(I'm thinking of you, you damn chinese incompatible and slow media player...)

 

[duwen]

Is there specific software that can't run on linux or windows?
or is it just the workplace that uses mac and nothing else?

Yes and no... it has little to do with the majority of the software I mainly use (Adobe CC stuff, which is obviously cross-platform), it's just the case that Macs have always (*well, since computers took over from the "by hand" ways of old, +25yrs ago) been the default platform for the industry. Pretty much the only time I ever need to use a PC for work is to embed PC fonts in a PDF that hasn't been created to print spec.
TBH, there's no real reason why the industry couldn't abandon Macs as the default... other than the historical reasons of it being "the way"... but it's one of those things where everyone across the entire industry needs to be on the same page (no pun intended).

 

[tglaria]

Yes and no... it has little to do with the majority of the software I mainly use (Adobe CC stuff, which is obviously cross-platform), it's just the case that Macs have always (*well, since computers took over from the "by hand" ways of old, +25yrs ago) been the default platform for the industry. Pretty much the only time I ever need to use a PC for work is to embed PC fonts in a PDF that hasn't been created to print spec.
TBH, there's no real reason why the industry couldn't abandon Macs as the default... other than the historical reasons of it being "the way"... but it's one of those things where everyone across the entire industry needs to be on the same page (no pun intended).

I think I understand, but what I read is that you need to use the same (compatible) software than the rest of the industry, not the OS itself.
So, if all the software you need is on another OS that suits you better and/or has better performance, why not switch?

Doesn't matter what the rest of the industry is using to get the work done as long as what you use is 100% compatible with it (or the work to make it compatible is less than the work it takes to keep using their "standard way of work").