The odd-numbered Windoze OSes tend to be better than the even-numbered ones.
Well, Windows NT 3.51 was great, NT was finally ready for prime time.
Windows 95 was a much improved desktop.
Windows NT 4.0 was NT with the Windows 95 user interface and it was awesome.
Windows 98 SE was great but ME was a joke.
Windows 2000 where they merged regular Windows with NT was awesome and brought Active Directory but it was starting to get bloated.
Windows XP and Windows 2003 server are both awesome.
Vista wasn't too bad but people didn't see much reason to move off of XP since XP was a rock and people would continue to use it if they keep it patched.
Windows 7 is awesome and I haven't used Windows 8 but the whole thing behind 8 was lame. I don't see the need for a touch screen on a regular desktop. No one wants to reach across their desk to operate their computer not to mention a streaked screen after a bag of chips.