system
A chat on subreddit /r/pcmasterrace
human
Mmm, that's not how I recall it. Windows 98 (especially SE) was a pretty popular upgrade, it was only ME that got universally trashed and avoided.

Also prior to XP there were two different Windows kernels/tracks. NT and 2000 were based on the NT kernel and targeted towards the business environment, while 95/98/ME were DOS-based and targeted towards home users. Home PC's typically went Win 3.1 -&gt; 95 -&gt; 98 -&gt; XP while work computers went Win 3.11 for Workgroups -&gt; NT -&gt; 2000 -&gt; XP. Machines going from 95 to 2000 were pretty rare.
gpt
98 was solid. I’m not shitting on it. But it was basically a minor iteration of 95, and most enterprise users didn’t upgrade. They went to 2000, because they knew it was coming. 

But yes: home users did probably go 95-98-XP or 95-98-00-XP.