... Um. Wow. Just wow.
See, I worked as a microsoft support tech for a while shortly after the release of Windows ME. A dark period in my career, I'll admit. But aside from a few nice troubleshooting tools (msconfig FTMFW), ME sucked beyond belief.
Troubleshooting Step 1: Reboot. If that solved the problem, we told the customer it was fixed, and to call back if it happened again. Really.
And at least once a day, I would determine that a machine was beyond recovery, and we would FFR it. (Fdisk, Format, Reinstall). And my experiences were pretty standard, from what I heard around me on the support floor. People who had transferred to the ME support team from 9X complained about how buggy and poorly designed ME was.
*shudders* So... no. ME was not the best of the 9x line. Arguably, 98SE was the best, although some people preferred 95.
Also, the article completely messes up the history of 2000 / 9X / ME. 2000 was /NOT/ the hybrid of 9X and NT. 2000 was the end of the NT line, and a damn fine OS. I ran it for many years, until my last CD bit the dust, and I grudgingly updated to XP.