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Comment by motters | Hacker News Reader

Microsoft lost its way quite a long time ago. In the 1990s it was pretty much invincible, but after that things began to unravel. For me the lowlights were:

Windows ME - it self-destructed on me after a few months of usage

Internet Explorer 6 - gave me the best possible incentive to move to Firefox

Windows Genuine (Dis)Advantage - for me was really the final straw

Windows XP was highly successful though, although again they really failed to do anything very innovative with that OS other than keep it stable. By the end of 2006 I'd stopped using most of their products, having been a MS stalwart since Windows 3.1, and I havn't looked back since.

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"Windows XP was highly successful though, although again they really failed to do anything very innovative with that OS other than keep it stable."

Just as some seem to look back on Microsoft and portray it as having been so good, there seem to be some rose colored glasses looking at XP too. Yes it was hugely better than earlier consumer versions of Windows, but between it's inferiority to OS X, and massive number of security holes, and the various ways people were locked into it, it was pretty sick.

I think it was some of the disappointments of Vista that somehow made XP seem better in retrospect Sure XP was popular in the sense of it being widespread, but the same could be said of herpes.

It's sort of like Bush making Reagan and Nixon seem better. Nixon, the criminal, sure looks saintly now. And as much as some may have disagreed with Reaganomics, he still came across as honest about his intentions, and likable with a sense of humor.

Its funny how perspectives age.

You had me until: "Nixon, the criminal, sure looks saintly now." I adjusted for hyperbole, but still.

Maybe it's only because my generation's closest ties to Nixon are via Hunter S. Thompson's popular invectives, but I don't know of anybody who thinks that Dicky M. deserves any more veneration than a kidney stone. But then, I suppose I never have had a very keen eye, when it comes to finding the inner beauty of politicians...

IE 6 - gave me the best possible incentive to move from netscape.

Let's remember - IE6 was better than anything else (except maybe IE5/Mac) at the time it came out. Opera might be an exception, but you had to pay for it so no thanks.

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