XP is a piece of shit as far as ease of use is concerned.
Win2 K is head and shoulders above it and it's super fast.
My dream is a Win2k install in state of the art hardware, that machine would fly. that's what I think I will do on my next machine if developers allow it. But my next ivestment will be to
add RAM to my 2001 Win2k machine (bought used in 04) , it's still good, doesn't run with as much stuff as it used to of course but that's mostly because of developers using new technology on websites and slowing down the net to a crawl.
Even XP Pro with newer browser seems slower on many sites than Win2k with IE 5 back in 2003 or so.
XP pro makes you work for MrSoftie , constantly asking you to send them reports. Who gives them the right to put users at work like this ? It also comes with all sorts of annoying new features that were thought as improvements but really waste your time (automatic updates, messages of all kinds etc.) .
That was the start of the current trend which has reached the point where you hand over your computer and your life to developers. I hear Win 7 now tracks you everywhere you are.
Such arrogance from these developers . They think they own you.
I estimate that without upgrading anything on a voluntary basis, I still spend one or two days per year working on problems created by developers, upgrading stuff and fixing the problems caused by those very upgrades .