[ianhawes]

Hot take but XP is only remembered fondly in this community because it was the dominant operating system from 2001 through 2011 on consumer devices that were likely purchased as first or second generation home computers for millenials that are approaching their first 25 year retrospective.

[Synaesthesia]

It had an exceptional lifespan and basically represented the height of dominance for Microsoft.

[alephnerd]

I mean, among "younger" American HNers (those who went to middle or HS in the mid 2000s to mid 2010s), MacOS X Leopard or Windows 7 was probably a much more foundational desktop OS - most of our school computer labs used one or the other, as did our families.

I could make a similar argument for Win7 and the indie gaming scene.

[jonbiggums22]

If you'd been using Windows 9x you'd appreciate XP just because the install didn't rot itself to pieces every 6 months from DLL hell. But the rise of internet downloaded crapware and malware managed to keep your reinstall skills sharp during that era for another reason.

[alephnerd]

Pretty much. But that's almost all of HN tbh.

A lot of references, topics, and language patterns on here really highlight the fact that the userbase is somewhere between 35-45.

Still love Windows XP though.