This is the first and only time I had to post this since I seldom review programs/games.
The five best Windows OSs
1) Windows XP
When people want to experience and get wowed by the features, design and stability, XP is the answer. As for the design, my favorite theme color of blue. The best and most popular OS (as well as my favorite OS) lasted over a decade of support, but as long as you don't use the Internet, you shouldn't be running with the security issues and other bugs. The only thing I heavily abhorred is why do we have to activate Windows through the Internet anyway. The saddest part of this OS is that it should have supported DirectX 10 to extend gaming and other features. PC gaming in that generation back then was the best.
2) Windows 7
Security, stability, design, and numerous features makes it best and recent OS yet. Far better than Windows Vista, the booting and shutting down of the OS improved. The biggest drawbacks are the mediocre Windows Explorer, no support of DirectX 11.2 and 12 and slow installation timing of some programs.
3) Windows 98 SE
An improved version of Windows 95, the OS added more interesting features. The stability was better than Windows 95, but still it lacked better crash protection. This was my second favorite OS behind XP. As of DirectX gaming, it can even support up to 9.0c, the same version that WinXP uses! Like Win95, it can read music CDs and how much space it has, but WinXP and above versions don't determine how large the music CD is. The installation of programs is the quickest among all Windows OSs if you have a fast PC with this. Win98's minor drawback is that you cannot put over 1 GB of RAM because it cannot handle that much.
4) Windows 95
This OS marks the golden age of PC computing. It has a some great first MS games back then but it lacked Reversi. My first PC back in 1996 has a 1.6 GB hard drive and it was perfect for Win95, since it doesn't use a lot of hard drive space. One drawback to Win95 was crash protection which it lacked in case crashes do happen. Unfortunately some older DOS programs have trouble running under that OS unless you reboot to the DOS mode. It was until then DOSBox was the answer a few years later to actually run DOS apps under Windows as an emulator. Guess what was the last great compatible game to work in Windows 95.... it was Half-Life 2!
5) Windows 3.1
This OS was a huge improvement over Win1.0/2.0. Businesses back then finally can use an OS to do applications, and a much better desktop interface was implemented. However the OS lacked some drivers, even video drivers to make the monitor resolutions to shrink or make bigger. The problem relies on the beginning of installation of this OS, you got to install and use everything into the hard drive. But back then, PCs have very tiny hard drives (and RAM) and hard drives less than 25 MB are not recommended for this OS.
The five worst Windows OSs:
1) Windows 2000
The buggiest and least stable Windows ever, it took six service packs to resolve thousands (even millions) of issues and as of today, it still is. Whenever crashes occur, the entire OS hangs and freezes, even when you are on the Internet. It was until Windows XP became the penultimate answer to stability and security to this awful OS. Most businesses using this OS had a long life of grueling issues. As of today, most games do not work in this OS.
2) Windows Me
It looked more like Windows 98 3rd edition than Windows 2000 Second Edition. At least it did feature System Restore and a few new other features. Calling it a millenium edition should have much, much more, but there's nothing else significantly new to wow users. Like Windows 2000, most games do not work in this OS.
3) Windows 1.0/2.0
They are buggy and less featured, which are no match to Apple Mac OS 1.0/2.0. Back then, they rely on DOS to do launch Windows through the DOS prompt. But at least there was Reversi.
4) Windows 8
Probably the most controversial Windows OS ever, since many people hated to see there's no start menu in the desktop until it's restored back in Windows 8.1. The other thing is that metro UI menu that desktop users did not like at all. Windows 8 was most fitting for tablets, smartphones and PCs with touchscreens, but because of mediocre design and lack of better features, Windows 10 became the replacement to this lackluster OS. Also to mention is the usage of the Windows Store, which anyone would barely use and Valve's CEO Gabe Newell thought it would kill PC gaming for good. The only thumbs up: the much better look of the task manager and file explorer and the booting up and shutting down of the OS.
5) Windows 10
The good news it's free to download as an ISO but without a serial number you can't activate Windows. While better than Windows 8 with a hybrid start menu with metro UI, the recent OS still lacks a lot of features from previous Windows OSs and the OS should have been bigger than what people thought. This means you have to rely on more 3rd party programs to owe it up. People should have expected something better and different in Win10 than Win8 and as a matter of fact, it isn't. Even some of the designs are still used from Win8... pathetic. Even Mac OS X still kicks *** over this OS when it comes to features and design. DirectX 12 didn't get fully official used for most video cards until the first anniversary edition of the OS. All-in-all, the OS still heavily relies on the Internet with apps, updates, information and the spy materials that Microsoft puts there, something that Apple and Linux would never do to an OS. There are some things that I liked in Windows 10 but I should expected more. As for system requirements, Win10 runs much better if installed and run on a solid-state drive.
I know some of you won't agree with me but those are my final brief reviews of those OSs.
