I used 98plain only because I had no upgrade path, even to SE. I wouldn't think of using it for anything but a personal desktop/laptop OS, and what an unpleasant experience it was. If only the latest builds/modules worked on 95, man that was so much faster and easier...

I've never had IE stop working simply because I switched to LS. Scratch that; the Windows Update wouldn't work unless I had IE up and pointed at a Web site or page.

For serious IT work, I recommend *nix (unix, linux, bsd, even macosx), but if you're locked into the Windows "solution," the NT versions are best. (nt4, 2k, xp, lh ;)