What's your favorite operating system of all time and why?

[FAST6191]

They are all bad and the people that made them should feel bad. I use them anyway though, except apple stuff because if I am going to be hamstrung I am certainly not paying that kind of money for it.

If I could smoosh together XP and 7 then that. 7 is better in many ways but damned if I can't trick out a version of XP and make it sing, and similarly I know where it all goes together such that I can fix it happily when it goes wrong. Most things after that try to be too clever and get in my way.

Amiga OS and workbench it is then.

 

[Minox]

For nostalgia reasons I'd say Windows 98SE/2K, but Windows 7/10 are by far more usable.

 

[DarthDub]

They are all bad and the people that made them should feel bad. I use them anyway though, except apple stuff because if I am going to be hamstrung I am certainly not paying that kind of money for it.

If I could smoosh together XP and 7 then that. 7 is better in many ways but damned if I can't trick out a version of XP and make it sing, and similarly I know where it all goes together such that I can fix it happily when it goes wrong. Most things after that try to be too clever and get in my way.

Amiga OS and workbench it is then.

Amiga 500 (I've only used 300 so I'm assuming 500 is better) with a Zip Disk Drive is the best.

 

[kuwanger]

I see you've only used Windows for the majority of your life.

Actually, I've used Windows for less than 27% of my life (~44% Linux, ~27% without a computer, ~5% with DOS, and the rest a DOS/Windows or Windows-only setup).

And even if you've used Linux, you know the pain of being without your Windows specific applications. This is why I went to macOS.

That sounds like a punchline to a joke.

Don't get me wrong. I wholeheartedly despise Apple as a corporation, but their desktop OS is top-notch. I know "muh games" is a constant argument against this OS, but Parallels and pass through have come a long way.

Yes, pass-through is great. Except it's not. Minimally, I have to have two GPUs and pass off one GPU entirely to a VM at times and basically cross my fingers nothing goes boom. If I seriously want to reduce the risk of problems, I need two GPUs of sufficient power and dedicate one GPU to VMs...but only one VM at a time. Then there's the issue that GPUs aren't strict super sets of older GPUs, so it's hit and miss whether stuff works on older OSs in a VM. VMs themselves are a mess, especially when it comes to support real mode/protected mode games. DOSBox (aka, the emulation I mentioned) is only 95% effectively, has a bunch of forks with a smattering of features, and has very inconsistent performance. Pcem looks like it's at least making progress in these areas, but its horrible slow. Etc, etc.

PS - Not trying to diss all the VM/emulation. It's obviously not an easy problem.

 

[sj33]

On my gaming machine, I use Windows 10 out of necessity. There is really only one choice for games.

On my laptop, I dual-boot Linux Mint and Windows 10. Linux Mint is the daily driver that I use 99% of the time, I only have the Windows 10 install for the Xbox streaming application.

 

[Joom]

~44% Linux

I'm sorry.

That sounds like a punchline to a joke.

I was aiming for infomercial, but I'll take that.

Anyway, I don't PC game outside of emulation, so I'll never have a need for Windows. Apparently games are the only reason to keep Windows according to Windows users, but I'll never understand that level of Stockholm syndrome.

 

[InsaneNutter]

If i had to choose a favourite OS of all time i think it would be Windows XP.

The customising / theme scene for XP was massive. It's the only OS where i've had custom themes, custom icons, custom lock screens, custom boot animations and custom mouse pointers. Everyone seemed to spend ages customising and tweaking XP back in the day, which actually made the "show us your desktop threads" on forums really interesting.

I also liked how you could switch users and remain logged on, this was handy for MSN Messenger as I could remain signed in and get messages, even when someone else was using the PC. (Back then we had no smart phones and MSN was the Facebook / Whatsapp of the time everyone used)

Another thing I liked was Remote Desktop, I could log on to my PC from elsewhere and with a patch not even log the person off who was actually sat on the PC at home using it.

I could also use Internet Connection sharing on XP to share the internet to a PC I made out of old parts, which was great as back then routers at home we're not really a thing yet. (I think Windows 2000 / 98 might have done this to some degree, however it certainly worked better on XP).

I've upgraded though every version of Windows since, I used betas of Vista and Windows 7 too, I used Windows 8 once 8.1 was out and upgraded to Windows 10 on release.

7 Would be a close second, then Windows 10 which I use today. Windows XP by far brought the most useful features to Windows at the time though and it amazed me just how long it got security updates for.

 

[Deleted User]

My personal favorite is Windows Vista. I know it was terrible and all, but I used it a lot back then and have some fond memories with it. I still get nostalgia from it.

If we're talking about the best one, it's obviously Windows 7.

 

[kuwanger]

Anyway, I don't PC game outside of emulation, so I'll never have a need for Windows.

I have a separate machine for Windows 10 and modern games because it's the simplest way to cluster them together (like a console). I also have older machines for DOS/Windows 9x games, although most of them need repaired. I most use emulation for non-PC because I don't have the hardware and am unwilling to generally invest in a variety of systems.

Apparently games are the only reason to keep Windows according to Windows users, but I'll never understand that level of Stockholm syndrome.

Well, that's more the specific point to keep Windows. The more general reason is that Windows is "good enough", and they don't see an advantage to learn a whole new system while still maintaining a Windows system for games. I understand where they're coming from, and even a simple, good VM isn't good enough. To get a console-like experience, the best situation would be something like a collection of overlays (representing OS, drivers, patch set, and enabled hardware) that's specific to each game. Actually managing all that is very tedious, and any attempt to group manage it is likely to break copyright.

So, this is one area where DOSBox's ability to emulate hardware, a fake DOS OS, and have a relatively compact config file is nice. But it's too unreliable to just run a random demo* or report a bug on an old game and know it's the game, not the emulator, that's the issue.

* Seriously, as just an example of a stress test try Assembly '94 demoes. In VMs, my experience is VMs tend to crash or perform horribly. DOSBox tends to be better, but tends to have flickering, stuttering, and/or missing sound..and it might crash. Games thankfully aren't normally nearly as bad, but I want to aim for 100%.

 

[Lmaokernel]

Windows 7. Windows 7 Elementary Edition to be specific. Sadly my new pc doesn't support 7 so I'm stuck with 10. It's not all that bad after running DWS, debloating and optimization scripts

Sent from my toaster running rebug

 

[Deleted User]

My favorite OS would probably have to be any flavor of Debian-based Linux. Arch is also pretty good, if a bit more difficult to set up.

I see you've only used Windows for the majority of your life. And even if you've used Linux, you know the pain of being without your Windows specific applications. This is why I went to macOS. Don't get me wrong. I wholeheartedly despise Apple as a corporation, but their desktop OS is top-notch. I know "muh games" is a constant argument against this OS, but Parallels and pass through have come a long way.

WINE Support these days isn't too bad, though. Besides, I was pleasantly surprised at how much of my Steam library is perfectly playable on Linux natively.

 

[Stephano]

Windows XP will always have a special place in my heart as it was the operating system I've used most, but Windows 7 is my favorite. It's sturdy, decently fast and I love the UI. I have two desktops at home, one running Windows 10 and the other running Windows 7. I'll never update the Windows 7 desktop because W10 broke a ton of my games, most notably F.E.A.R.

 

[sarkwalvein]

Any OS that works really. As long as it works, I am fine with it.
For this reason I don't really like old unsupported OSes and distros, I mean, all good for Nostalgia and whatever, but in reality if it is not supported it is a PITA.
You know, specially if I use a Linux distro, I like to be able to yum or apt-get whatever I need without problems. The same as it may apply to macOS, Windows, etc. Say I want to install the last .NET or some new application, I should be able to.

Also I should say I kind of liked macOS (still do), but I get annoyed every time they limit further what an user can do... You can't chown /usr/local? Come on, High Sierra!

If we're talking nostalgia, then old time MSDOS 5.0, or the BASIC environment of C64, coupled with GEOS and a lot of patience /s (hell, a lot of patience)

 

[TyDye]

windows ME

 

[Cha0tic]

Linux Mint. It's very Windows-like, without being Windows.

Using linux mint myself, Ubuntu isnt bad but mouse issues on it as for Manjaro I had it running on another laptop perfectly. On my current laptop hours to get it to a booting state and still wasn't perfect. Came back to linux mint cinnamon and 1,2 process for the install.

 

[dankzegriefer]

gentoo because it's fun

 

[ov3rkill]

Windows XP SP2. Stayed there for a long time because of games and applications compatibility.

 

[Deleted User]

I'm going with Windows because its the OS I grew up with and am most familiar with. I'm not attached to any particular version.

 

[Taleweaver]

I'll go with windows XP as well. Of course modern OS'es are better on almost all fronts, but it was the first OS I could literally use until...well...until it was time to fully upgrade the computer. Before that, I considered it normal if the software broke down on their own over time to the point that it was normal to reinstall windows every six to twelve months.

Linux used to be a struggle, but linux mint...if wine improves to the point where it can run all windows apps natively (and just as smooth), I'll ditch windows 10 immediately.

I'm not too familiar with solus, but I can sort of see why it's rising in popularity relatively fast.

Windows XP SP3 first and foremost, because of how damn reliable it was and I literally never had a single issue in 12 years I used it for.

But...SP3 is only about ten years old at this point.

 

[Uiaad]

Amiga 500 (I've only used 300 so I'm assuming 500 is better) with a Zip Disk Drive is the best.

I'm guessing you mean the 600, either that or the 3000 which is a completely different beast. But the 600 was a relatively minor upgraded 500 with new case and the ECS (Enhanced Chip Set ). Amiga's are just total workhorses and are one of my favorite systems to use and restore.

But yeah Workbench has to be my favorite OS of all time, it did more than what it needed to do without sacrificing core functionality for superfluous extras.