gary oldmans diary posted:

Windows 98 2nd edition compiled with the /opt:win98 switch on all dependencies from the get-go basically would have been as good for conventional desktop application loading and responsiveness as everyone getting modern SSDs in 1999 (as opposed to their 20% adoption rate, today). There is 0% likelihood that MS software engineers were unaware of this. The consequences of this would have been marginally better adoption of Win 98 2nd and abysmal adoption of every successive version of Windows that can't come close to that level of improvement. Limiting increments of improvement really is key.