Some new hardware does not have XP drivers available.
8.1.
No, I’m not joking.
I am a huge fan of windows 8 (now 8.1) myself, and I use it exclusively on my home desktop gaming PC. It is a huge improvement over 7, and no I have not done anything special to it to make it more like older versions of windows. The start screen is perhaps the single best advancement windows has made, ever. The charm bar is amazingly useful when you know how to use it with windows 8 apps.
Windows 8 is incredibly stable, boots incredibly quickly, and has many power user tools that 7 just did not have. The file transfer window is way more informative than ever before. Right clicking the start button gives you quick and easy access to every powerful thing you could want other than RegEdit. PowerShell is awesome. And on and on and on.
I have used every major version of windows since 3.1, and 8 is the best, easily. 7 and XP are in a distant 2nd and 3rd place.
Gee, I aint much for words and such… but you summed up my feelings nicely. There are many great features. People are resistant to change. Like with most things of this nature; once you get comfortable with it, you’ll realize the beauty of it when you try to do something on an older system and realize you’re trying to use a Windows 8 feature.
Windows 7, the last and best interface- I like the transparency effects a lot- before Microsoft went off their rocker and tried to put a tablet interface onto desktop computers.
Honorable mentions to 95 and XP, because they made huge improvments over what was there before.
95
I could still use my “After Dark” screen saver:(