lets not beat around the bush here we are all pc gamers here otherwise we wouldnt be here ( even though i prefer consoles)
and when you play pc games that means windows
so which version of windows do you prefer ?
i tend to prefer 3 versions of windows

first of all windows ME yes the bastard child of the 9x family i liek it because it can be throw at pretty much every older piece of hardware and can stick it wil dig upa specified or at least generi driver out of its driver database which will allow the pc to work with out having to hunt hours for a suitable driver and get the damn thing to work it wil also work just fine on any computer with a pentium 1 133 mhz and more then 32 mb ram
its stil modern enough as well
if a machine of mine cant run NT and its not a macintosh ME is the windows i turn too

windows 2000
it wants very little compared to modern requirements 128 mb is enough to run 2k in and 233 mhz is also enough not comfortable but enough its stable and stil modenr enough to run along with everything else with out to much overhead or an ugly candycane interface i tend to turn off anyway
unless i need 9x compatibility or applicatiosn specifically need xp this is my main windows

windows xp
the one i like the least 7 years old by now and vista is having a hard time replacing this one
when everything else faisl when i dont need 9x when 2000 isnt coperating or cant cope i turn to xp sp 2
on the whole i'd rather not since 2000 does everything i want from it despite being nearly a decade old by now but there you have it

so whats your preffered poison from redmond ?

i have a feeling neither 3.1 nor 95 wil get much votes

I much prefer XP. I'm using Pro Edition w/ SP3.

Let's compare them to something else (because I'm bored):

XP: That girl that was so hot back when we first met. Yes we had our problems, but we worked it out and we get along so great now. I've invested time in this relationship, learned how to keep her happy, even got her to alter her appearance just enough to keep that spark going. She's not the sexiest girl in the crowd, but she's mine and I can depend on her.

Vista: The sexy brunette that moved in next door. By far the hottest thing on the block. But she wants all my money just to make my place good enough for her. On top of that, she's quite flaky, all her old boyfriends say they're glad they got rid of her. She always wants expensive things that she never uses more than once and then there's the chance I'll come home one day to the horror that she's gotten rid of half my stuff.

Vista is hot, but she's not good enough to leave XP.

Woogie, that's one of the better allegorical descriptions I've heard.

I run a dual-boot machine of XP Professional and Vista Business, and have a legacy copy of Windows 3.11 installed on a Virtual Machine under Vista (for nostalgia's sake, just to show some people what computing used to be like).

XP is reliable and stable, but doesn't take advantage of my laptop's hardware the same way Vista does.
Vista is near-useless, though, for the games I have installed on my laptop.

So... I use Vista for work, media apps, image manipulation, and general websurfing.
I use XP for recreation.
Both have their pluses.

strictly XP for this girl, runs my business and my games, and rarely do I have problems with it. I've used xp since I was little...wait, I'm still little...you know what I mean!

I like windows made of glass.

HUD windows then
havent seen that one in the stores yet

What virtualization program do you have it running under? Is all the hardware accessible?

Microsoft Virtual PC - free download

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/...pc/default.mspx

It won't access the onboard camera, the memory stick, the non-keyboard display control buttons, or the usb ports, but those things were all developed long after Microsoft stopped supporting Win3.11

i didnt think ms vpc would support windows 3.1
i know vpc ran windows 3.1 when it stil belonged to connectix

il have to try it sometimes just for a laugh got ms dos 6.22 and win 3.1 somewhere around

i like Windows XP cause i've kinda worn into it but basicaly i just cant be Ars*d upgrading =P

I've used 'em all and I've been enjoying Vista since beta. I have 32 bit on one machine, 64 on my new gaming machine. Flawless so far but I know others haven't been as fortunate.

Cheers.

When I absolutely HAVE to use windows (which is annoyingly often - whenever I want to play most of my games, for example), I always use XP. Its modern enough to run everything I have, except for a few older games, fine, and compared to Vista is pretty lightweight - even before I've stripped it all down and disabled half of it for extra speed. While it doesnt run nearly as fast as my Ubuntu setup, its still pretty speedy, and even on my relatively outdated pc, can run most modern games surprisingly well with it, which wouldnt be the case with Vista.

Overall, its by far the best version of windows.

XP/Mac boot

Col John Sheppard

What no Commodore 64?1982 My first comp, 8bit, 64kb ram.Capable of 16 colors.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commodore_64
Bought my next comp when win95 came out. $3,000,ouch but had to have it.I didn't want xp at first
because i was reading about all the problems people were having with their dos games and how unstable xp was.That was until i could no longer run the new games,even with my brand new 3d, Intergraph,accelerator card.Bummer,so i went xp and was glad i did,ah,eventually.Now here comes dx10,Aw,man give me a _______ break.Anyway, here i am with my brand new vista machine.Vista is evil,possessed,not kidding,until i made a few tweaks.I may regret those tweaks but i'm keeping my fingers crossed,makes it hard to use the keyboard but it's worked before.So far, so good,been running pretty stable.Except the odd win explorer crashes @#$%$#&*$@#.If i have to i'll go back to xp,it's just wait and see right now.......

I voted for Xp and I thought I was the only one who actually likes mE.
Windows 3.11 was better than 3.1 & added networking features, it was OK.
95 was a big change, had problems but also added a lot of new features.
98se was the perfection of the 95 engine & I still like it.
So why do I like mE? because I can easily network it to my Xp machines & it has improved multimedia capabilities, I prefer it to 2000 as a home or game PC.
There are a surprising number of later (not latest) games that I can play on it & still play my old DOS games (no DOS box required), the best of both worlds.
I play Thief & Dune2000 all the time on my old mE laptop.
For now Xp is the best windows available so I will stick with it as long as I can.

I voted for XP primarily because of its stability. Seeing a GPF message left and right in earlier versions of Windows was just too frustrating.

I tried and evaluated Vista for my workplace and it was just too quirky and problematic to roll out. Besides, many of our apps were simply too old to run on it.

When I eventually get Vista, it will be the 64-bit edition and primarily for the games more than anything else.

LHammonds

and hopefully oblivion and loads of other games will work on it...

Col John Sheppard

They do.
My gaming box is Vista 64.

gee this thing is stil alive...ish