Enshittification Rule

To those who don't remember: Windows XP was met with mixed reception due to it's ugly UI, high system requirements, and instability on release. Those who found out how to get around WinME's driver issues stayed for even longer than those who were previously on Win95/98. Kids of that era really liked it though, because it looked playful, and/or it was their first introduction to computing.

The golden rule of the internet. Anything hated at release has a high chance of becoming beloved once those who grew up with become adults.
Truly bad stuff at release simply ends up forgotten.
Nostalgia is way more powerful than rage
- XP actually wasn't great on release, though I don't know anybody who clung to ME, considering it was itself a huge dumpster fire. It wasn't until SP1 hit that XP got really good.
  
  Most of us were just riding out 98SE as long as we could until MS got their shit together. Some people had 2000, but it wasn't really a consumer-class OS; it was meant more for the enterprise.
I never thought about how toy-like XP looked but you're absolutely right.
- People of that era called Windows XP the "Fisher-Prize My First OS".
Fisher Price OS.

My first computer was MS-DOS 5. I had ~~Symantec~~ Norton Commander for file navigation.

When I got windows 3.1 the colour red didn't work. My father took all day to fix it but he was so proud.
- I remember windows making fun of the Aqua interface in macs for the same reason, but I liked it then and hate that they've been removing colors from the OS over time. One of the reasons I switched to linux was to be able to easily customize the various icons to make them more visible.
That definitely sounds like you just made that up, considering I was around then.
That's interesting, because here in brazil, people loved windows xp on release. The general sentiment was that windows 95, 98 and me were too buggy and unstable, while xp gave a better experience.
- Thats an interesting wrinkle I hadn't considered. Was the release in Brazil done at the same time? Maybe XP benefitted from additional patches before the Brazilian release.