Windows hot take
Windows Vista wasn't bad. Computers were.
re: Windows hot take
Seriously. I managed to run it on a netbook *perfectly*. It ran just fine. No performance issues. That netbook was also released in ~2011. Vista wasn't bad. Computers were.
re: Windows hot take
And, oh hey, that 3rd image reminds me: I also had a Toshiba Satellite that came with Vista Ultimate. You wanna know how well it worked? Perfectly. Vista ran amazingly on it. Vista wasn't bad. Computers were.
re: Windows hot take
And one more for you: The Dell Studio Hybrid sitting on my desk. It came with Vista. You wanna know how that ran? If you can't guess, you either need to read the rest of this thread or *still* haven't caught on. It ran perfectly. Vista wasn't bad. Computers were.
re: Windows hot take
In conclusion, yeah, it may have ran like shit on the 2002 Dell Optiplex you kept around at the time, but if you actually had a computer built for it, like the Satellite A250 or the Studio Hybrid, it was a rather lovely operating system to use.
Love,
Aura, one who kept using Vista for years after Windows 7 came out.
re: Windows hot take
Also, while I'm making Windows hot takes, Windows 8 also wasn't bad. Granted, I may be biased as one of the earliest users of Windows 8, having been using it since the early developer previews, but it wasn't bad. Literally the only thing wrong with it was the start screen. And even then, that was on desktops. I really think the only problem with it is that they did have the start screen on non-tablets. It's fine on tablets.
re: Windows hot take
I know because I had a Dell Venue 8 Pro that ran Windows 8. It was a rather nice device, lack of apps aside (and honestly you can't really put that on Microsoft).
re: Windows hot take
And, I guess I should admit I used Classic Shell to get the start menu back. I didn't use the start screen on my laptop. But, honestly, that's like the one tweak it needed, IMO.
re: Windows hot take
Anyways, enough windows hot takes. In conclusion, Vista and 8 weren't that bad.
P.S. Linux is still better. 
re: Windows hot take
Of course, I will also admit I'm biased on Windows 8 because I actually bought a license key when it released. They had Win 8 Pro keys for $40 at the time, and I took 'em up on it.
But it's seriously good, start screen aside.