Rank the top 10 best OS's ever

I would think Mac OS system 1 should be there as it ushered in a new era in computing - graphical user interface. While not first on the market (lisa and even xerox's attempt), it was the first to be in a consumer focused affordable computer.

Here's my list

1. Mac OS System 1
2. System 7
3. Windows 3.1
4. OSX 10.4
5. MS Dos 2.11
6. OS-9 (unix running on a tandy color computer)
7. OSX 10.1
8. Fedora (any version)
9. OS/2 Warp
10. Windows 7

There's really only 6 OSes on that list (Classic Mac OS, DOS, Windows NT, OS/2, Mac OS X, GNU/Linux). You're listing version numbers and flavors. And those are really just consumer OSes. Top 10 best OSes :

1. z/OS, aka : OS390/MVS/the daddy.
2. HP-UX
3. Solaris
4. VMS/OpenVMS
5. GNU/Linux in any incarnation
6. BeOS (Would be higher if Be Inc. had managed to get some traction, the OS was fantastic, just lacked applications to use it's awesome multi-threading support).
7. NeXTSTEP/OPENSTEP/Mac OS X

Really I'd stop there as far as my experience goes. Though if you asked me to continue, it'd probably say :

8. AIX (Smitty is cool, didn't quite play enough with it).
9. VxWorks (runs about everything that's embedded out there that isn't Linux)
10. Windows NT, just for finally bringing multi-user and true security facilities to consumers and mass-market PCs.

1. Windows ME
2. Mac OSX
3. Mint Linux (I just love that distro)
4. Solaris
5. Free BSD
6. Red Hat (still linux I know)
7. I guess I could say iOS even though its mobile. I really like it.
8. Ubuntu (pre-Unity interface)
9. Windows 7 (I really don't care for it but I'm running out of OSs).
10. Windows 98SE

And yes, I'm kidding with that first one!

Windows Sbs 2003
Osx 10.6.8
Windows 95
Windows 7

I'll do five favorites and five least favorites.

Favorites on the Mac side

Mac OS 10.2 Jaguar (it made Mac OS X useable as a primary OS)
Mac OS 10.5 Leopard (most ambitious of the Mac OS X releases, added a ton of new end user features)
Mac OS 10.0 Cheetah (it redefined the modern operating system and saved Apple with its consumer-oriented UI, transparency, modern kernel, memory management, etc)

Favorites on the Microsoft side

Windows 95 (Microsoft's only major contribution to the desktop GUI, IMO; most innovative operating system Microsoft has ever released especially when you consider Microsoft's fast work on Internet Explorer including its crazy futuristic integration with the desktop GUI - WebDAV folders, RSS-like features, HTML customizations, etc)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Desktop_Update

Windows XP (NT kernel, modern search, after SP2 modern security, etc)

Least Favorites on the Mac side

Mac OS 9 (clearly a stop gap release with quirky features like VoicePrint password that never worked)
Mac OS 10.6 Snow Leopard (should have been a software update to Leopard users; still firmly believe the only reason it was released was because the majority of Apple's OS engineering resources were devoted solely to iOS during this period time)

[I won't even mention the System 7 updates that showed Apple's management had a complete lack of vision at that time]

Least Favorites on the Microsoft side

Windows ME (horrendous stability, rushed to market)
Windows 98/98SE (pointless upgrade although at least Windows Update was introduced with it)
Windows Vista/Longhorn (complete disaster all around, best example yet of Microsoft making billions of dollars on a clearly inferior product)

Favorites.
OS X Tiger (10.4)
Windows 7
OS X Snow Leopard
AIX 4
Windows 98(SE)

No.
Windows XP
Windows ME
Windows Vista
OS X Lion
OS X Mountain Lion

Linux and BSD stuff I occasionally use and I am indifferent. Some distro's are decent, others are trash.

jaw04005 said:

Mac OS 10.6 Snow Leopard (should have been a software update to Leopard users; still firmly believe the only reason it was released was because the majority of Apple's OS engineering resources were devoted solely to iOS during this period time)

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I actually really liked SL for this reason. It's refreshing to see an OS whose focus is improving the existing system, not tacking on new features for the sake of it. And it was priced like a software update, unlike previous versions of OSX.

1. Windows XP - It lasted more than 8 years on the market, and was a great OS for it's time. Towards the end it was a little long in it's tooth, but there's no doubt that it was one of the most influential OSes ever, plus I enjoyed using it.

2. Mac OS X Snow Leopard - Rock solid OS with all the features I could ever want, NEVER had a problem with it. Last true Mac desktop OS without gimmicky iOS features.

3. Mac OS X Tiger - For it's time, Tiger was pretty awesome and brings a lot of nostalgia to me. I remember opening that iMac G5 in Christmas 2005 and being amazed at how sexy Mac OS X looked. I used Tiger for over 4 years as a main OS.

4. Windows 95 - Really the biggest change to Windows that has occurred up until the upcoming Windows 8. Was great for it's time, although finding and installing drivers was a HUGE pain in the ass, what can you expect from an OS that was released 17 years ago?

5. Windows 7 - I really liked Vista, but I could see a lot of shortcomings that annoyed people. Windows 7 was basically Microsoft's Snow Leopard. They took everything that made Vista great and improved upon it, and took everything that made Vista bad, and fixed it. Really I see nothing I don't like about Windows 7. I plan on using it for a long time to come.

Noteable mention:

Mac OS 9 - ****** OS for it's time, but OS 9 really marks the beginning of something great with the hardware it came on. Nostalgic memories. I remember in third grade when we got those iMac G3s with OS 9, I was amazed by it, although OS 9 wasn't anything really special. Believe it or not there are still a very small number of users that use OS 9 as their main OS and there is still modern software being written for it.

roadbloc said:

Favorites.
OS X Tiger (10.4)

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Tiger has been my favorite for OSX. It is what I believe the pinnacle of design, performance and OS size. After Tiger, OSX started getting bloated and resource hungry. I don't mind Snow Leopard, Lion is ok and I feel better about Mountain Lion. In fact I think ML is better the Lion, it should have been what Lion was imo.

Favorites

Snow Leopard
OS 9 (Clean and fast)
Windows 2000 (Best Windows without activation)
Cent OS ( Redhat Linux without the subscription costs)
Microsoft Me (The Snow Leopard release of Windows 98)

OS 9

WFW 3.12 tied with NT 4.0

post-modern windows GUI :

Windows 2000

OS 10.4


that is all.

1. Windows 7
2. OS X Snow Leopard
3. Windows NT 4.0

In no particular order:

•Mac OSX Tiger (first great version of OSX IMO)
•Mac OSX Snow Leopard (massive improvement from Tiger)
•Mac OS9 (grew up on this, great OS with tons of classic games on it that I still use today)
•System7 (grew up on this one too, nice OS)
•Windows7 (really nice OS that's modern and works great IMO)
•WindowsXP (for remaining a decent OS for such a long time)

Can I include Mobile OS's too?
Not in any particular order:
1. Windows 7
2. OS X Leopard
3. OS X Tiger (first version of Mac OSX I used.)
4. Ubuntu 10.04
5. Mac OS 9 (first version of Mac OS I used.)
6. WebOS
7. Windows XP- How could you not love XP? It's still a widely used OS to this day.
8. OS X Snow Leopard
9. iOS
10. Windows ME

Puevlo said:

Rank the top 10 best operating systems that ever graced our planet.

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Here's my list.

1. Mac OS X 10.5 The last version of OS X for PPC.
2. NeXTSTEP 3.3 The most beautiful OS of its time.
3. AIX 3.2 IBM's kick ass UNIX OS for PPC.
4. webOS 2.0 The best little mobile OS that was doomed from day one.
5. iOS 6.0 Maybe a little ahead of myself here!
6. Windows XP Still hanging tough after all these years.
7. Red Hat LiNUX 6.0 GNOME was integrated into this release.
8. Windows for Workgroups 3.11 Built my first network with this OS.
9. BeOS 4.0 Supported PPC and x86.
10. Android 4.1 The latest iteration of Google's very popular mobile OS.

My tribute to NeXTSTEP

My list only includes OSes I have owned and remembered:

1. Snow Leopard
2. Windows 7
3. Leopard
4. Windows XP
5. Jaguar
6. OS 9
7. Windows 98
8. Windows Vista

1 - iOS 5
2 - iOS 3
3 - OS X.7
4 - OS X.6
5 - OS X.5
6 - OS X.4
7 - iOS 4
8 - Windows XP SP2
9 - OS 9
10 - Windows 7

(Cant include any OS that makes it difficult to do common tasks AKA any Linux/Unix OS)

1. Mac OS X Snow Leopard. This thing is impeccable and still is the best Mac OS X I've ever used (Lion just sucks.)
2. Mac OS X Leopard. A lot of great new features, and Time Machine is a lifesaver.
3. Ubuntu 10.04. I hate Unity, which has been default since 10.10.
4. Windows XP. Can't believe this OS is still mainstream after 10 years.
5. iOS 4. The most ambitious release that finally brought much-requested features like multitasking.
6. iOS 5.
7. NEXTSTEP 3.3.
8. Windows 95.

OK, so I've been at it a few years.

OSX is great, but you've all omitted another great operating system - VAX/VMS!

Much like OSX, and iOS, it was very intuitive.

You top 5 favorite operating systems ever?

What are you top 5 operating systems? Not just Mac OSes, but any one.

Mine are;

1. Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger (because it was the first OS I used on my first real Mac)

2. Windows XP (it is my favorite windows version to date)

3. Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard (this one got me into Macs, by hackintoshing my netbook, and what possessed me to buy my first real Mac, a G4)

4. Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich (I just love how stable it is, and how nice it looks)

5. Ubuntu 12 (very easy to use and the live CD always comes in handy!)

Aren't 10.4 and 10.6 different versions of the same OS?

Fedora 17
Fedora 16
Fedora 15
Fedora 14
Fedora 13
...

I think I'm doing it wrong.

boss.king said:

Aren't 10.4 and 10.6 different versions of the same OS?

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Yes, but they differ, like Windows and Linux versions do too.

I still think that Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger was the most stable Mac OS X version to date on my iBook, PowerMacs and x86 iMac. Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard comes close.

Anyway, my preferred OS list:

1. Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger
2. Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard
3. Windows 2000

It is only three, since those are the ones I spend the most time with, apart from Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard and Windows XP and some time with Mac OS X 10.7 Lion and OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion and some Linux versions.

These are my favorites, in no particular order:
1.) Mac OS X 10.5
2.) Debian 'Squeeze' (At least in my setup with FVWM)
3.) **** Small Linux
4.) Arch Linux
5.) Mac OS X 10.1 (I love the Aqua UI)