From my experience it seems like Microsoft can only get every other operating system right and I've used just about all of them over the years. Windows 3.1 bad, 95 good, 98 1st edition bad, 98 2nd edition good, ME very bad, XP good, Vista not so good, 7 good, 8/8.1 bad, 10 not sure yet. (NT4 and 2000 didn't fit into the pattern but I thought they were ok.
) Vista wasn't that bad compared to buggy mess that Millennium was, at least once they put out Service Pack 2 anyway, but it wasn't nearly as good as 7 or XP. I'm using 7 right now but I'll make the switch to 10 (or whatever might be out next if it's any good) eventually. I didn't feel like it was quite "there" yet when they were still giving out the free upgrades. I passed on Windows 8 because I just didn't care for it when I beta tested it. All in all, it ultimately doesn't matter what OS you use so long as you keep it up to date, take preventative measures against viruses and other forms of malware, and it's functional. One piece of advice I'd give anyone when choosing an OS (or any other piece of software for that matter) is do some research before you install so you don't stick yourself with something that's going to leave you frustrated be it an OS, browser, antivirus, or whatever.