My ~10 year old XP box started to become cantankerous.
Unidentified hardware failure, intermittent, becoming increasingly frequent. Probably a loose connection somewhere in the maze between the CPU and the MB, but the tech doesn't know for sure.
Shame in a way, because XP does everything I need of it. It was a near top-end machine when built, and served very well.
Good, in a way, because I've just bought a new machine and installed 8.1 on it. No problems at all. Fast.
It's not a particularly steep learning curve. Nothing really irritates me about the way it works.
I'm not too tech un-savvy, but if someone my age can navigate W8, it shouldn't be a problem for most others.