Comment by ziml77
4 years ago
It's long bothered me that Windows got a reputation of being an unstable OS when the issues were caused by poorly written software. Things got better when they moved over to the NT kernel, but drivers were still a frequent cause of BSODs since they ran in ring 0. A combination of WHQL certification and getting drivers to run in user mode instead of kernel mode has helped significantly with stability.
To be fair, not crashing under poorly written programs is a fundamental part of OS stability. Windows at the time had no resiliency against a CS101 student messing up on an assignment, it was unstable.