I am not referring to hardware. Hardware quality has largely improved, software quality has largely gotten worse.

I think there was a sweet spot in the late 2000s and early 2010s, more specifically, the Windows 7 and Mac OS X Snow Leopard eras.

On the Windows side of things, this was when Microsoft got serious about security, with plagued earlier versions of Windows XP (worms were so rampant around 2005) until later service packs helped fix things. Windows 7 was solid and performant. While my favorite version of Windows is 2000, 7 was another high mark for Windows.

Much has been said about Snow Leopard, but it was the pinnacle of Mac OS X, the refinement of an already great OS, Leopard. I would gladly used Snow Leopard today if it weren’t for needing current web browsers and up-to-date security patches.

Even the Web was better back then. By 2008 many mainstays of modern Web life, such as social media and YouTube, were already in existence. Google was excellent. Internet Explorer’s dominance was successfully challenged, and there was an ecosystem of standards-compliant browsers (later IE versions, Firefox, Safari, Chrome, Opera). Web developers were coding to standards instead of only writing for one browser. Yes, ads existed, and there was also malware, but ads were less intrusive, and malware can be avoidable with more careful browsing.

I miss 2009- and 2010-era computing, when Windows and Mac OS X were at their peaks, when the browser ecosystem was diverse, and when many commercial websites like Facebook were still pleasant to use.

I think regarding the combination of usability and stability the Win XP/7 era was still unbeatable.

WinXP was just an ugly face on Windows 2000 Workstation without an EOL version of DirectX for gaming.

Oh, Win 2000...that was my fav OS. I stretched using it until XP is almost history. But XP was good for me too, especially comparing to 10/11.

As someone who recently walked into a Best Buy with a family member and bought a laptop, I respectfully disagree.

All that store sells is hot garbage.

Yea I totally agree. This is selective memory.

Perhaps there were peaks and troughs in individual technologies. Late 2000s / early 2010s felt like a good time for operating systems, for instance.

But is everyone forgetting having to navigate through Flash websites and Java Applets using Internet Explorer, for instance?

Also, people are just forgetting. There’s nostalgia in this thread about the iTunes desktop app, for instance. That program has been a pile of trash for as long as I can remember back in the 2000s.

iTunes is one of the best software of all times, you are crazy. It existed before even OS X was a thing (under another name but still).

It only became "problematic" when they tried to overload it too much to be able to "support" Windows for the iPod/iPhone without having to develop dedicated software.

They largely killed it and the replacement is lackluster. The best version was around version 10-11 with the colorized album view.

To this day there are no audio library management software that come close to what iTunes was. Apple Music, being a fork, is the closest thing, but it's not really the same thing at all.

> build quality

Tell that to Dell and their shit trackpads and prone to death battery charging circuits. And the joy of soldered RAM so you cannot upgrade can't be overstated enough.