as as s-hit-y as or s-hit-y-er . ( it *is* based on 8 )

that being said,
I do like booting straight to desktop and bypassing that phone / tablet look gui. i do not like that on a desktop or laptop

Also, You can remove pins from start bar, add a quick launch bar. makes it more xp-ish (and 7-ish if you did that in 7 for more productivity)

Yes

Windows 8.1 works well for me. In many respects it is XP with different clothing and some enhancements. Once the user adapts to the new way of doing business, it works just fine.

The start screen can be set to show the desk top as with XP. The windows button on the bottom left corne r of t he screen can be set to show all programs like XP with less key strokes AND programs are organized by type...I like that.