Before everyone loved XP, they hated it.

[DConnell Member]

It didn't help that XP (by default) had a child-like animated dog performing your searches...

 

 

It should have been a more sensible paper clip!

[Dot Matrix]

I miss Clippy! :(

[Jim K Global Moderator]

  Most people really liked Windows ME, despite how unstable it was.  

 

Hehe...what?

[Noir Angel]

From what I can gather most of the initial hate for XP was aimed at the fact that they were upgrading Windows 98/ME era computers which meant driver support was a nightmare for the first couple of years after RTM (that and the fact that it was riddled with security flaws). Most of the usability changes to XP were visual, it wasn't as different from 2K/98/ME as 8 is from 7.

[+Fahim S. MVC]

Many of those that I knew that went from 2000 to XP hated it because of the loss of stability and it's out of the box ugliness.

Many of those that I knew that went from 98SE/ME loved it because of the improved stability but hated it because of the increased hardware requirements.

 

I hated it for the most part, with the exception of the fact that you could theme it relatively easily and there were some exceptionally beautiful themes out there (and especially on here).  In my opinion it wasn't even a passable OS at all, but it was an important stepping stone to get to where we are today - boy what an improvement it is!

[Studio384]

It's basicaly how every Windows version start, 7 seems to be an expectation on that rule. Through no other Windows version was liked when it launched. Nha, going great times ahead if you're not that close minded.

[McKay]

From what I can gather most of the initial hate for XP was aimed at the fact that they were upgrading Windows 98/ME era computers which meant driver support was a nightmare for the first couple of years after RTM (that and the fact that it was riddled with security flaws). Most of the usability changes to XP were visual, it wasn't as different from 2K/98/ME as 8 is from 7.

 

The new Start Menu was ridiculed senselessly, but it was mostly glossed over as the haters mostly switched to the classic start menu. A lot of Vista hate was the drivers system changing and suddenly devices didn't work. But people seem to have gotten over that and think of XP as the darling child of Microsoft, but still remember bitterly that Vista was incompatible with their printers, their cameras and scanners etc.

[Noir Angel]

The new Start Menu was ridiculed senselessly, but it was mostly glossed over as the haters mostly switched to the classic start menu. A lot of Vista hate was the drivers system changing and suddenly devices didn't work. But people seem to have gotten over that and think of XP as the darling child of Microsoft, but still remember bitterly that Vista was incompatible with their printers, their cameras and scanners etc.

 

My personal opinion on Vista was that it was simply a victim of Microsoft's decision to hose the Longhorn code base half way through it's development process, start again, but with the same release deadlines. Before SP1 fixed a lot of it's ills it simply felt to me like it had been rushed to market. Once they released SP1 and drivers matured I mostly found Vista to be OK, though I was glad for Windows 7 as it seemed to run much better on similarly matched hardware.

[+Fahim S. MVC]

The new Start Menu was ridiculed senselessly, but it was mostly glossed over as the haters mostly switched to the classic start menu. A lot of Vista hate was the drivers system changing and suddenly devices didn't work. But people seem to have gotten over that and think of XP as the darling child of Microsoft, but still remember bitterly that Vista was incompatible with their printers, their cameras and scanners etc.

 

Ignoring driver compatibility and the horrible file copy bug (which Microsoft admittedly took their time resolving), Vista was a much better OS out of the gate than XP was in my opinion.  Unfortunately there were very few that actually had a machine powerful enough to run it well, and that is where its reputation stems from.

 

The machine I bought to run Vista, still runs 8 without breaking a sweat which in itself is an achievement as that is a 7 year old machine.

[McKay]

My personal opinion on Vista was that it was simply a victim of Microsoft's decision to hose the Longhorn code base half way through it's development process, start again, but with the same release deadlines. Before SP1 fixed a lot of it's ills it simply felt to me like it had been rushed to market. Once they released SP1 and drivers matured I mostly found Vista to be OK, though I was glad for Windows 7 as it seemed to run much better on similarly matched hardware.

 

I had a good experience with Vista, I bought it on a new machine that comfortably met the system requirements, so it ran smoothly, and all of my devices worked on it just fine. My Camera and Printer/Scanner combo. 

[Noir Angel]

The charity I volunteer at has some old Vista era machines that can run 8.1 very nicely as well. It is impressive that Microsoft have managed to improve Windows since the release of Vista without pushing the hardware requirements up.

 

 

I had a good experience with Vista, I bought it on a new machine that comfortably met the system requirements, so it ran smoothly, and all of my devices worked on it just fine. My Camera and Printer/Scanner combo. 

 

I guess this one was very much dependent on the person. At the time I had an Opteron 165 rig with an nVidia 6800 GT. My main source of woe was the well documented nvlddmkm driver bug. Once I made a new machine I had no issues.

[+Warwagon MVC]

It didn't help that XP (by default) had a child-like animated dog performing your searches...

 

 

You do realize this was the first version of NT designed for the average user, and the average user is an IDIOT. But guess what they did? They gave you the option to TURN THE DOG OFF!

[Noir Angel]

One of the most popular nLite tweaks was to turn that dog off :laugh:

I loved XP but it was admittedly annoying :D

[JustGeorge]

You still can.. what can't be customized now? Still can change the visual style, icons, sounds, cursors, hell even the shell itself, add all sorts of fluff, just like before, no harder than it was in XP.

Well, before, it was just a matter of patching the uxtheme.dll file. What is involved now? As I said, I'd probably not even mess with it at this point. I spend more time working, than staring at my desktop.

[Dot Matrix]

You do realize this was the first version of NT designed for the average user, and the average user is an IDIOT. But guess what they did? They gave you the option to TURN THE DOG OFF!

... Ok?

[Max Norris]

Well, before, it was just a matter of patching the uxtheme.dll file. What is involved now? As I said, I'd probably not even mess with it at this point. I spend more time working, than staring at my desktop.

Exactly the same as before.  Patching the theme service or use something like UxStyle then copy over whatever style that does it for you.  Hasn't changed in the least. (Sadly.. why is this still requiring a cheap hack to do?)

[Active.]

It didn't help that XP (by default) had a child-like animated dog performing your searches...

 

That dog was awesome!   :shifty: I'm beginning to think I literally disagree with every single one of your opinions... ;)

[Guest]

It didn't help that XP (by default) had a child-like animated dog performing your searches...

 

 

For some unknown reason, I always thought that having the dog there would slow the search. Silly. :)

[sc302 Veteran]

Everyone hates change, many people hate the new oses because they change the way things are normally done.  The ribbon in office was absolutely hated, people get used to it...I still think it is a bad idea but I work around it.  Windows xp how they "hid" all of the programs in the start menu was another pain in the rear, but that could be fixed with classic shell.  there have always been work arounds to get what you want out of the os, until windows 8.  I use more commands now than I have ever before.  It is fine by me, I seem to roll with whatever microsoft chooses to change.  appwiz.cpl works fine for me, or npca.cpl, or powercfg.cpl, or devmgt.msc, or shutdown -r -t -t 0 to get to some of the more common administrative things I need, it beats trying to find them in a multitude of screens hidden in the control panel or some other random place they choose to put it..the commands are universal between oses, the point and click location is not.  For those that say they have to remember, when you do remember it spans oses and probably into the future oses, you remember this os where the location is it will change later on so you have to go find it...and search tends to slow down after time, when I type in putty in the search field it can take quite a few seconds to find it vs putting in a run prompt.

[JustGeorge]

Exactly the same as before.  Patching the theme service or use something like UxStyle then copy over whatever style that does it for you.  Hasn't changed in the least. (Sadly.. why is this still requiring a cheap hack to do?)

Good to know. Thanks :)

[Raa]

I don't think XP was the greatest OS to come from Microsoft. A good one yes (but certainly not at launch), but not the greatest developed either.

[LUTZIFER]

I loved XP right from the start. I even had my Windows 98 pretty much skinned to half ass look like XP before I even got it.

I even did my website graphics etc. etc. to have the XP look.

I haven't used XP in quite some time now, but I do miss the look of it, especially the visual style I made myself for it.

The only Windows OS I could not stand, was Vista.

[Krome]

I never dislike XP nor Windows ME.  They are both better than Windows 3.1.  Only OS I can't really stand is 3.1

[binaryzero]

Didn't move to XP till SP2 - stayed with 2000 Pro.

[Hum]

I did not talk to anyone who disliked Windows XP.

 

Most said it was a good upgrade.

 

My only big complaint was poor CD burning, which didn't happen, with RC 2.