"But I guess some people still like their Win9x too"
"I prefer the interface of Windows XP myself,"... "and I think it's a little stupid to waste system resources on the cosmetics of the OS. "
Windows 2000 with DWM, ClearType and support for x64, DirectX 11 and multi-core CPU would suit me to the ground, TYVM.
I don't see any "improvement" in the Windows Explorer since Windows ME \ 2000. The enhancements to GDI made by GDI+ and DWM are very welcome, everything else is a poor attempt to copy Apple without inviting law-suits. Actually, I'd welcome and exact clone of the Apple dock, so you'd think I'd like the super-bar... but I don't. I see it as far less functional than either the OS X Dock (or most of it's third party Windows clones) or the traditional IE4 Windows Taskbar.
Note, this is part of Explorer. It has "replaced" the code which existed for XP / Vista, so it doesn't take any "more" resources. If you mean stuff like Aero peek and the glass effect... well... yea, we said that about the stupid Telly Tubby, Tiny Tots Luna "theme" in XP too. Actually, this mostly uses resources in you graphics card which are force released when you do video editing or play games that need those resources... that's why the glass theme turns off when you run those things.
"Did you know?
Microsoft first introduced a taskbar with Windows 95. Its design remained largely unchanged until the modifications seen in Windows 7."
WRONG! The taskbar had a MAJOR update with IE4 (as I mentioned above) and many people didn't like that either. This was what introduced the "Quick Launch" bar, and the ability to add other toolbars like the Language bar or Media Player mini-control bar. Windows XP introduced the idea of "hiding" inactive notification icons in the "System Tray" and "Combining" buttons for active tasks.
The trouble is that Windows 7 has taken back many of these improvements. Let me give some examples:-
o Combine ALL taskbar buttons (not just when full) AND show labels. (this was possible in XP with TweakUI, it is impossible in Windows 7 no matter what you do)
o Hide a notification time ONLY when inactive. (This was pretty much the default in XP, but is now impossible... you have to choose if you see the icon all the time, only the balloons or nothing at all)
o Network activity flashing when the interface is active. (This has been the norm since 95 and has now been disabled. The only thing that icon shows now is that a particular interface has no connection at all... unplugged, or no WIFI in range)
o Change the "Show Desktop" button before the notification area, active tasks, Quick Launch or Start Button. (This could be done by setting a special launch bar for the Desktop icon alone... however, it is fixed to the right of the clock in Windows 7 and although you can show another one, you can't get rid of the excessive one taking up space on the right hand side)
New features are always welcome... someone will inevitably like them. Disabling existing well loved features for no apparent good reason (except stylistic choice) is not good. If there is a security threat posed, or a system drain then it's understandable... but these features should surely just be a matter of user preference. Such choices should not be made by the programmers at compile time, but by end users at run-time.