2000 should have been the year of the UNIX/Linux desktop. Windows XP was late, users were fed up with Windows 95 crashing, the Internet bolt-ons for Windows 95 were not very good, and Windows 2000 wasn't compatible with many old 16-bit applications. There was a big window of opportunity there. It was missed.
But Windows 98SE was one of the best versions of Windows. So good in fact that it was a very long time after Windows 2000 came out that I made the switch. Linux on the desktop still had far too much catching up to do back then. Additionally, I would say PC gaming was at a peak around that time, and that meant for a sizeable chunk Windows was the only option.
Windows 98 was a rehash of Windows 95, as was Windows ME. Windows 2000 was a good desktop OS, based on Windows NT, but many of the crappier 16-bit apps wouldn't run, so it wasn't much used by home users. Windows XP was Windows 2000 with a lot of Windows 95 kludged back in so that old 16-bit apps would run and the user experience looked more like Windows 95.
