I, for one, enjoyed Mac OS 8 (8.6 specifically). My first Mac came with System 7.5.1 and I went through all of the updates to escape the dreaded Type 11 error. I maxed out on System 7.5.5 and stood my ground until Mac OS 8.5 was available. That's when I made the leap. My 6100 variant with 40MB of RAM seemed happy. It was even happier when I installed the 8.6 update. I cruised along fine on that until my next Mac purchase in 2004.

I completely avoided Mac OS 9 because of the RAM requirements. Plus, it didn't seem to offer any compelling features. With OS X just around the corner, it felt like they upped the version number just to fill the gap. Mac OS 9 probably would have otherwise been Mac OS 8.7. So when I see Mac OS 9 fan sites, I just automatically include Mac OS 8 in there, since 9, to me, basically *is* 8.