Where Windows scores highly is in the ability to lock down a machine and impose (and then vary) a central group policy. Linux developers dropped the ball on that one, which is part of the reason why MS has maintained such a stranglehold on the desktop. Linux can undoubtedly achieve much of the same control, but it's still in pieces.
We had our solaris systems tighter than the PC network NIS+ is great. In fact tight as a ducks arse on a pond would be a fair description. Even the Chinese users couldn't butcher the workstations into mandarin.
And as with most things M$ they where just copying Netware with the controlled networking. In fact I can't really think of anything major in the last 15-20 years that they have come up with themselves.
The only major upgrade in my view was when they released NT which I still have my MSCSE card for somewhere. But yet again they had to get the old boy that wrote OpenVMS in to do that for them.
Win 8 is lets be a tablet phone thingy and complete and utter annoying bollocks.
Actually I am using 8.1 just now and its not that bad for day to day use. I just have a applications folder on my desktop with shortcuts to the stuff I use in it just like I did in previous versions and it goes straight to desktop on login so I never see that panels crap. I have local accounts so never get involved with windows live accounts or what ever they are called.
But I would definitely not call it vastly superior to XP more of different.
They don't seem to realise that the features which they see as superior hold absolutely zero interest to the majority of users.
Its the same with office out of 900 users I would say only 5 of ours ever got near using any of the fancy office stuff the rest of them wouldn't have a problem with open office as long as everyone else was using it and there wasn't any file conversion issues and formatting going to pot between the two.