I’d say Windows 7 was last that was relatively normal, even though I was all in for Linux even then. It had fairly coherent UI, wasn’t crazy about adverts, it didn’t feel like 10 layers glued on top of an old OS so that it could make impression that it’s contemporary. It also didn’t try to be anything but desktop OS
Working at MSN Tech support during the. Blaster Worm and its subsequent variants which triggered reboots in Windows 98-XP, I was put off from every version of Windows including XP, and it was the last windows I installed.
After working an 8 hour shift of repeating the same proceedure on a customers machine to properly fix the virus every 15 minutes, the same thing I had done every day for three weeks, I came home to find my XP machine bootlooping due to the second variant (Sophos) finding its way into my patched machine as the fix for it had come out while I was at work. Instead of joining the Freelancer LAN party I was due to be at that weekend, I spent the time fixing my machine and learning Linux. That year Windows became a secondary install, and remained that way until Wine had stabalised for most games I played. I think I dropped dual boot around 2011.
For some of us the last sane Windows was XP, so we’re well over it. XP was the end of the era when geeks ran Microsoft.
I’d say Windows 7 was last that was relatively normal, even though I was all in for Linux even then. It had fairly coherent UI, wasn’t crazy about adverts, it didn’t feel like 10 layers glued on top of an old OS so that it could make impression that it’s contemporary. It also didn’t try to be anything but desktop OS
Working at MSN Tech support during the. Blaster Worm and its subsequent variants which triggered reboots in Windows 98-XP, I was put off from every version of Windows including XP, and it was the last windows I installed.
After working an 8 hour shift of repeating the same proceedure on a customers machine to properly fix the virus every 15 minutes, the same thing I had done every day for three weeks, I came home to find my XP machine bootlooping due to the second variant (Sophos) finding its way into my patched machine as the fix for it had come out while I was at work. Instead of joining the Freelancer LAN party I was due to be at that weekend, I spent the time fixing my machine and learning Linux. That year Windows became a secondary install, and remained that way until Wine had stabalised for most games I played. I think I dropped dual boot around 2011.