Well, I can use virtually all my Windows software from the Windows 98 period...with little tricks...on a 64 bit Windows 10...and I like Linux too. Just saying.
Surely, no dubt. But I was referring to the OS, not to applications. Some Win applications runs also on Mac and Linux.
Added after 1 hour 23 minutes:
Some final considerations then I quit this off topic. If an operating system is an ambient in which one works, it will be like your ambient; say, you could have the socks inside the wardrobe (xp) and one went and move off your socks inside the kitchen's closet (vista, 7, 8, 10, no matter in which order, and just this says all). You will loss time in search of; a novice, a beginner, can start from 10 and go on because he has a new PC, but an old boy like me is already set as it is and does carry on old programs, old files, etc. that are "alive" and backupped until the disk fails, not until the OS updates because a new peripheric, high-end screen resolution, etc. of which I don't care; these come out because a new PC is purchased when there are such features. Example: still I use DOS applications in batch mode. I can't see those advertisements and warnings on screen about what I use to do whether I load them: it hurts me, it is a stupid non-sense because I do loss time in search of blocking such stupid prompts coming from an OS made by the same corporation. And the rationale in which such options are stored too, does change from version to version. Therefore: why I should updating the OS whether my disk is still working fine like is it? My Xp is installed on a 15 year old disk running on a 10 year old PC because the installation went fine (the new disk got the place of a storage unity) : maybe my disk is older than a kid's first computer.
My favorite Win programs runs fine on my Linux drive; in few hours I'd set-up my Linux version looking like I used to use Xp because Linux is fully customizable, and my files will stay and growth there, all backupped, until the disk failure (I do not have planned to buy a new computer yet and sorry for too much "my").