Tyler have you ever even used NT4? I mean, have you ever installed it, or so much as logged into a computer running it?
The fact that you call NT4 "buggy" just makes me scoff. Where I used to work we had NT4 SP6a servers with uptimes far more than a year. And they only ever got downed for hardware upgrades or something like that.
But you probably heard or read somewhere how much NT4 used to suck, so you act like you're "in the know" and spout it off like gospel.
The same with Win2k. You sure hate it a lot for someone whos probably never used it, since if you had, you'd know its almost indistinguishable from XP. The only thing that 2k didn't have going for it was the fact that it was never meant to be an "average joe" OS. If Microsoft had kept supporting it today, there would be absolutely no difference between using it and XP. In fact, I'd still be using 2K today.
I was one of those "early adopters" of 2K. I had a lot of experience with NT4 workstation, and I knew that it was really not suited for general purpose use. I also knew that Win98 was a piece of garbage. So when Win2k professional came out, I picked it up, back in 1999.
And I suffered through all the BS that was inherent with moving to the NT kernel, which is that a lot of older (poorly written) programs did not get along with NT, as well as the fact that a lot of (crappy) hardware did not work with it. I suffered through having to scour the internet for "in development" NT/2K drivers and used what I could. When I first started using it, you couldn't find drivers for anything. I got used to asking "Does it support Win2k" when buying hardware or software.
Back then, all the fanboys were running Win98SE still, because nobody wanted to use Win2k. Nobody wanted to touch the NT kernel.
Also, Win2k was not "based" on the NT4 kernel other than the fact that they were both "based on NT technology." Win2k was an entirely new kernel revision, i.e. 5.0 instead of 4.x.
And then came Windows XP late in 2001, and all the fanboys made the switch. I stuck with Win2k long after, into 2003 when I finally ended up having to switch because of lack of support for 2000. (For instance, poor Hyperthreading support)
Windows XP 5.1.2600, as far as I am concerned, was just a fancy graphical update for the 2K OS. Nothing even close to impressive until you get to SP2 where it at least stands on its own.
And so now I am an "early adopter" of Windows XP x64, and I am going through the same driver hell that I did back then. And I'm going to stick with it. Because it isn't bloated with eye candy, it runs on the fast, stable, and lean 2K3 SP1 kernel, and because I enjoy the benefits of actually USING the 64 bit extensions of my processors.
... but then I have to read threads by you and others who have probably NEVER USED it, talking about how much it sucks and how its just "a transitional OS." Yeah, well, Win2K was also a "transitional OS", since its where the NT kernel integrated into the desktop line of development. And it was a lot more stable than XP.