I've got an ancient Dell Inspiron running XP, newer Inspiron with Windows 7 and wife has Lenovo with Windows 8.1. The XP is the most stable platform. I use it to run a weather station and webcam. Would still be using it if it was smaller and lighter. Windows 7 machine occasionally does the Windows crash and burn for no reason. We both dislike Windows 8.1. It is very stable but the learning curve is steep. It just doesn't seem intuitive to me. Works ok for basic Windows functions, but it is a pain when trying to do the out of the normal operating things.
