Massive testing and reasonable analysis:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/windows-os-software/242891-xp-vs-vista-vs-sp1-vs-2008-vs-32-vs-64-benchmarked.html#post3269439

The article was written in 2008!

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The article only considers which Windows is fastest, not which is best.

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Indeed. Still, nothing significant changed regarding the inspected OSes (appart from the afore-mentioned lack of figures for 7 & R2) since then, IMHO.

Care to elaborate on what would be your measure for 'best'?

It is subjective, of course.

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My YouTube channel | Release date of my fourth playlist: April 11, 2013

The site was mostly interesting in that some windows versions would beat others in unexpected ways.


It's definitely question-begging. When you're saying "best" you always have to follow that with "for what?" Gaming? Work? Letting mom check her email?

Windows 7 is undoubtedly more secure than WinXP. WinXP works with more software. And Windows 2000? About a year ago I installed Win2K in VMware and was blown away how incredibly responsive and quick it was in comparison to any other machine I owned, even inside of a Virtual Machine. I still don't understand why -- even with all the nifty user interface stuff turned off -- no other Windows even comes close.

Anyway, since so few programs here on the site don't work for it, I had to switch back to XP.

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Having been on XP x64 (~=Server 2003) for a couple of months now and mostly satisfied with it, I'm seriously considering moving to a custom built Server 2008 x64 (~=Vista!) in order to solve some driver issues that can't be overcome otherwise... I came across that article while doing my research. My case is more for all around general heavy use...

I always remember this rule of thumb: Microsoft is the king of bloat, so every software upgrade is equivalent to a double hardware downgrade -- that's why I always delay any upgrade to the last possible moment...