Windows 7 was peak Windows. They smoothed out all the problems of Vista (plus hardware caught up to the recommended specs) and all the new tech that Vista introduced matured a bit. Was one of the nicest looking operating systems they ever released too - though that is highly subjective.

Everything after has introduced some form of garbage in it's iteration. Windows 8 had a garbage tablet interface that sucked when used with keyboard/mouse. Like the majority of devices that it was installed on. Windows 10 rolled back some of those shit changes but was the version Microsoft started implementing their adware. Windows 11 took it to 11 and put in a bunch of hardware requirements that conveniently required you to dump some money into Intel hardware.

Been running Linux for last six months and it is crazy how much better it runs. It isn't as cumbersome to use as the old days... But every once in a while I run into something that requires Googling and tweaking in Terminal. It's been my best experience with the OS though going back to WAY back (Mandrake and Slackware days - or are they still around? Early 2000's maybe???)