Too good for a number scheme, Windows 10 announced for 2015

[darsparx]

Let's hope so...I don't mind them experimenting but 8's experimentation was horrid

Also parallels already has a workaround to get the developer preview for those of you like me on mac with parallels working here. I've already installed it, and honestly after unpining that crap from the start menu, and installing firefox(because screw internet explorer, i just can't stand it no matter the revision now) I think my opinions may have changed. Without being subjected to metro(especially after doing those tweaks) like you were in 8, it's not as bad as to mess with 10...

[MrPopo]

The actual thing looks like this:

1 - Meh
2 - Bad
3.1 - Good
95 - Good
98 - Good
Me - Bad

Meanwhile

NT 3.1 - Good
NT 3.5 - Good
NT 4 - Good
2000 - Good

Then it converges

XP - Good
Vista - Bad
7 - Good
8 - Whiners
8.1 - Better but still whiners

Vista being bad was mostly a case of it being a beta for 7, since the original OS that was supposed to go in that slot was thrown out after two years of development without oversight. Lots of cool stuff was developed but there was no strong product visionary to tie it together and a large chunk of that codebase was nuked. Thus Vista was thrown together quickly so that Microsoft could have an actual release.

[darsparx]

I don't know about 98, though I've always heard it wasn't as highly looked upon as 95 though...(though don't ask me where because not many people I'm around talk about stuff that old anymore, the closest i get to having someone to talk about stuff that's considered retro is the ps2 we have at my church along with a ton of sports, puzzle, and some movie tie-ins though missing the kingdom hearts that introduced me to the series though doesn't bother me since i have my own copy now)

[ZeroAX]

Vista being bad was mostly a case of it being a beta for 7, since the original OS that was supposed to go in that slot was thrown out after two years of development without oversight. Lots of cool stuff was developed but there was no strong product visionary to tie it together and a large chunk of that codebase was nuked. Thus Vista was thrown together quickly so that Microsoft could have an actual release.

Judging by how many 360s at the time were dieing out, I'm guessing this was part of their overall business philosophy.

[marurun]

95 was revolutionary (for Windows, at least) for making an effort to keep up with the Mac's user interface, however the stability of the system was always questionable at best. The Mac OS at that time wasn't super stable, either, but it had better up-time than most Win95 installations. Win98 was more stable by far. ME wouldn't have been so bad if it hadn't been slower than 98 and far less compatible, despite being very similar.

And having used Vista for several years now, it's actually mostly just fine. I have 7 on my laptop and Vista on my desktop and once Vista was appropriately patched it actually compares pretty favorably.

Also, Win 3.1 was... ugh. I was a Mac user at the time, and by comparison Win3.1 was rather sad.

[fastbilly1]

I have a buddy who used 98se as his primary OS from 1999 until 2010 when he had to upgrade to OSX for wife's work. He had a linux based firewall between it and the internet, but he had no reason to upgrade since it did everything he needed it to. His day job, IT admin for a major company in town.

[noiseredux]

95 was revolutionary (for Windows, at least) for making an effort to keep up with the Mac's user interface,

95 was revolutionary for gamers cuz of DirectX as well.

[lisalover1]

95 was revolutionary (for Windows, at least) for making an effort to keep up with the Mac's user interface,

95 was revolutionary for gamers cuz of DirectX as well.

And it eventually included a network IP stack by default, so developers would no longer have to write one themselves for each game.

[marurun]

95 was revolutionary (for Windows, at least) for making an effort to keep up with the Mac's user interface,

95 was revolutionary for gamers cuz of DirectX as well.

Good point. Apple wasn't doing gamers any favors. Never did, really.

[RyaNtheSlayA]

Good point. Apple wasn't doing gamers any favors. Never did, really.

Ahem. Are we forgetting about the most important game console to date?



Let's also not forget Game Center. The ultimate in gaming community services.

---

Apple is getting better about having up to date graphics support. Mavericks finally brought OpenGL 4.2 and I guess Yosimite is supposed to bring some rather large performance gains in terms of graphics.

To be perfectly honest, if Windows wasn't the juggernaut it is in terms of game support I wouldn't really want to touch it again. I had forgotten how much I prefer OS X (and most Unix based OSs) in regular use. But as a gamer, there really isn't much of a choice if you want to play a lot of the big releases.

I really couldn't fathom using Windows 95 up to 2010 though. Windows 2000 sure but man, using 95 just seems insane to me.