Windows 7 is the best. It runs all of the old software from Windows 95 and Windows XP. Well so does Windows 8 but there is a couple of things not working on 8. Windows 7 also has a start menu and is much faster than Windows 8. In short Windows 7 is better than Windows and and I don't know why they started Windows 8 as we don't really need it. Okay I can understand them saying that Windows XP is an older OS. But why should we upgrade to Windows 8 when there are some flaws in it and it does not run all of the software that Windows 7 does?
Coming late to this party, and perhaps others have said this. Window's 7 does not run older programs! Just to name a short few: I've used Homesite, an HTML editing program I purchased many moons ago, also programs like Paintshop Pro, Dreamweaver, etc, and I had a still capable and still one of the best printers ever made, an Epson Color Pro. The printer did many things the newer printers still can't do unless you want to spend a couple thousand dollars. None of the mentioned programs work on anything past XP. When XP came out, that was the start of Windows ignoring older software and programs to force you to purchase new, less favorable programs or products. Yeah for open source!
I'm old school. Not in that I don't like advancement, quite opposite, I just like good working programs that aren't crap. I'll try to make a long response short and stay to the topic, but that's hard. Windows 7 is the best of the worst because:
1) People follow the masses. Most people are not power users in that they don't know much about PCs except to turn it on and off. Having said that, they follow the masses and the manufacturers to the next new shiny box item. Thus making the next new MS the in thing. Win8 is just so bad awful that Win7 is still the best choice for supported OS's.
2) MS Forces you to the next. Look how long it took for Windows 2000 to die. It didn't die till 2010 when MS stopped supporting it. In my opinion, as a power user, it has the fewest blue screen issues. It was the best stable OS from MS. And when you booted in safe mode you could actually fix things. DOS was truly DOS, and if you couldn't fix it in Safe Mode, then DOS was always an option. Windows 7 (which came after XP and Vista - so Win2k almost survived three attempts to kill it) launch, along with dropped support for Win2k is what propelled Win7. And by then people were tired of the other failed attempts, XP and Vista.
3) People change because their tired of bad products. Windows 7 in my opinion, is the best choice of the worst choices. XP was avoided like a plague for years, but because most follow the masses, when they got into XP and saw how bad it was, and how much worse Vista was, when 7 came out, they were happy to jump ship. That an the fact MS was trying to kill XP and anything before it back then with Vista.
Win7 compared to Win2k - I give it 6 out of 10 stars.
Win7 compared to XP/Vista/Win8 - I give it 8.5 out of 10 stars. (I liked the old start menu better. Principle!)