[hnlmorg]

Ditto here. Windows 2000 was fast, functional and stable. When XP was new, ie before SP2, it was literally just a reskinned version of 2000 but with a few patches (some for better game compatibility, some for fast font loading, etc). But for the most part XP was just bloated. It had twice the hardware specification of 2000.

XP did later evolve into something distinct in its own right but it took a few service packs to get there. However by that point I had already switched to Linux.

Personally I never got the appeal of Windows 7's theme either. I guess it's just what one grows up with. I grew up in an era where GUIs were maximized for low resolution displays and Windows 7's theme, much like XP's, wasted so much screen estate in comparison. This is less of an issue these days with high DPI screens. But old preferences die hard.