Definition is simple. A plethora of OS components that will never be used and were installed by default. If it was just an app or two, whatever but your start menu in its default configuration, even in Windows 10 Pro for Workstations, is a cluttered mess. I would pay for Windows 10 Pro for Workstations if it was stripped down to the bare OS and during install gave you the option to install stuff like Defender, Store, system restore .... If they want to offer Windows 10 Home loaded to the gills with default apps then it only makes sense that OS versions designed to be a work environment not come with that BS.
I would definitely disagree with a few of your conclusions. I did not like and never really used 3.0. I did use 3.11 WFW (Windows for Workgroups), can't say I ever really liked it but it was useful. And you completely left out NT 4.0 which I used for several years. But my main area of disagreement will be with this: Vista? Seriously?? I'm trying to remember if I have ever heard anyone say anything good about Vista... Yes, now I remember, John Dvorak he praised it after they released SP2, but not before. Whatever happened to him anyway? And someone else, further down, made the comment that XP did everything he ever needed. Which I would have to agree with, and I can even go further. NT 4 did everything I needed (mainly because I'm not a game player).
Vista late adopters liked it because by then the combination of better hardware and a vastly improved OS made it pretty great.
IMO Windows 10 can be made to be better than 7 but out of the box, no way is 10 better. Windows 10 encouraged me to learn how to mod my OS so it is for the most part, just the OS. In that incarnation I agree, Windows 10 can be better than 7.
Windows 3.0, and 3.11 were huge improvements over DOS.....Thats why they are both = yes. Ive had many discussion, with many people over the years regarding Vista. Some like you, some like me. I never had an issue with it. I was running betas on it months before it was released too. I thoroughly enjoyed it. XP was great, but the interface was very fisher price, and somewhat clunky IMO.
When Vista was first released, before there were any service packs, many people were unhappy with it. There for a while I was quite busy installing Windows XP on new notebooks where the owners were very unhappy with Vista. I probably did 20 or more "rollbacks" to XP, which is quite a number for a part time hobbyist. One of the major complaints was the really slow boot time. The main thing that I remember about WFW 3.11 was that I could load the network drivers above the 640k threshold. Those network drivers were big, and if you had to load them within your 640k, you were only left with about 400k of usable memory. During that period of time, I really really wanted OS/2 to work. But IBM fell down on the job, and there you are...
I worked as a builder/Bench tech at a Mom and Pop Computer store when Vista came out. It was the last straw for an already dwindling customer base.
I was in IT then as well. It was brutal in the early days. Some of the PCs being sold with Vista were weak even for XP standards and came bloated with insanely heavy AV of the day. We had this E-Machine come in with 128MB of RAM, a really slow Celeron and then both Spyware Doctor and Norton Antivirus. Customer wanted to know why the system took eternity to boot. It was a clearance deal and the price was about the same as reasonable upgrades. We didn't charge them and told them to return it.
Because Enterprise is the most feature-rich edition of Windows 10, just as it was the most feature-rich edition of Windows 7 (together with its consumer twin, Ultimate).
No bloated store crap, no tracking (perhaps the browser tracks,) telemetry (yes, but enables MS to respond quickly to issues,) No pop up ads unless you have a virus, updates are a breeze, design team is fantastic, settings app is awesome, modern apps are great, updates are forced due to lazy, inept people who don't like secure operating systems, no a subscription model is not in the works except for QANON people. In other words Windows 10 is very very good far surpassing what MS has done before. Yes, I did enjoy Windows Me. As one friend of mine said "If you had issues with Windows Me, you are a p*ssy."
Somehow I get the distinct impression you are being sarcastic here. I was never masochistic myself, so I completely skipped over Windows ME.
My only ME experience was fixing it when it broke and on my personal system I had 98SE2ME installed on a driver for compatibility with ancient stuff.
No sarcasm intended. I loved Windows Me. It always worked wonderfully for me with no issues at all. It was a joy to use. Seriously. Of course I am a power user, and know a bit about computers so it wouldn't be any trouble.
if it has forced updates, then *%*& no!! sounds familiar, i have bought many devices, removed oem bloat and o.s. manufacturer bloat. i ended up using fully modified o.s.'s in the end to get purity. i think google abuses linux in android devices. ....oh... you were talking about windows 10.