"loved by millions"? In all my years in the IT sector, I'm not sure I've ever met anyone who actually loved Windows. I've certainly seen my share of Apple fans (some people call them "cultists"), and of course plenty of Linux/FOSS devotees, but I've certainly never seen this kind of devotion in Windows users.
I’m not as devoted to Windows as Apple people are to Apple, but I will happily go on record and say that at least from the perspective of a user, I’m a fan of windows.
Not the OP, however in my case while not enough to have an Apple tattoo [0], enough to have long stopped being an UNIX zealot since Windows 7 came around, fed up with "Year of Desktop Linux".
Honestly, if you surprised me with a computer running Windows XP I think the most immediate feeling I would feel for that computer is love. Windows 95/98 would also bring up some feelings but not as much as XP.
But yeah, "business as usual" Windows without nostalgia attached is hard to love, in my opinion. For the most part it just works decently but has a "It doesn't seem like I'm in control of my computer, really" feel to it.
You might not see devoted Windows users like mac or Linux but if the Windows users were to try the other two, the majority of them are not going to like the experience and the limitations they come with.
