To me windows vista/7/8 aren't really superior in any significant way to XP, other than perhaps that they are newer and have more support.
In fact it seems like performance-wise XP is superior. Maybe windows 8 would be xp-like without metro. You can't use a wmo or IE 3.0 with it though because you can't change the polling rate on the usb port.
It's really frustrating the way that computer progress has gone in the last 10 years+
For one LCD displays are just now barely besting their CRT counterparts, SED displays never came out, OLED barely exists. The wmo and IE 3.0 are still some of the best mice on the market.
Windows vista/7/8 all take much more HD space, are slower, and barely add any useful functionality.