Might be my rose-colored "good-ol'-days" glasses, but the only thing I remember that people hated about WinXP on release was the UI, and I don't remember any complaints about Win7 at release. And while everybody was happy about the improvement of Win7 over Vista--and likewise WinXP over 9x--Win8 has generally been much more reviled than Vista, and probably 9x too. Admittedly, we do get some curmudgeons that are still mad that MS hasn't brought the Win3.1 or Win95 GUIs back though.
Vista was disliked because of the new security model and the new driver model didn't always play nice with XP drivers. Win8 was hated because the GUI didn't belong on a desktop. Win10 is hated because the GUI doesn't belong on a desktop or a tablet and the OS is still half finished.
And FWIW, by SP3, WinXP was a very different OS than when it launched. IF Microsoft fixes all the bugs, organizes all the stuff that's been scattered in the move to TIFKAM and expands on their scaling concepts so that programs look reasonable on all platforms, THEN people will probably say they like Win10 (in so far as anyone actually likes an OS). But by then, it too will be a very different OS.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
