I was there when XP came out and it was clearly better than any of the entries in the two "parents" that it replaced (NT/Win2k, and 9X/ME). I was the local "hey, my PC is broken" guy and the first thing to try was always to replace whatever version of windows they had with XP.
I certainly have some anti-fondness memories as well (I had the service pack burned to a CD because it took longer to download and install the updates than it did to get infected with one of the various worms around at the time), but there was zero doubt in my mind that XP was the best windows yet when it came out.
I bought into the windows 95 hype big time when it was launched, and I think it by and large lived up to that hype. I was in highschool still, and I gladly bought a copy using money that I had been putting away specifically for this. It really was a high watermark for Microsoft and the Windows product for sure.
This was the "Release name" for every NT version.
RCs were alpha quality, SP1 was the first beta, with SP2 things started to be ok. This was true until 7, then the Gates of hell opened and Windows is now an eternal "release" ( the thing between RC and SP1).
I certainly have some anti-fondness memories as well (I had the service pack burned to a CD because it took longer to download and install the updates than it did to get infected with one of the various worms around at the time), but there was zero doubt in my mind that XP was the best windows yet when it came out.