Just ask anyone who actually experienced Windows ME, the buggiest OS ever made.
Sure that was buggy. But really post ME I've never really had any major issues with Microsoft OSes. I don't even get the Vista hate. Aside from a lack of some 64b drivers from some third parties and that it was too heavy for the cheap end of laptops I found it perfectly fine. Hell 7 was more or less just Vista optimised to run better on crappier hardware.