I don't think XP is crap.
What Microsoft did with their service pack 2 SP2 is that it made sure that the copy of XP was legal, and not a copy. So those who have copies, cannot obtain SP2 and their system doesn't work as well. Microsoft don't this to stop piracy because it was a reported fact that ~23% of XP copies were cloned or copies. Before the release of SP2, Bill Gates said that Microsoft would pump up it's income by $64 Billion. XP and future operating systems won't be hacked, and that is were people have to seriously buy an operating system instead of borrowing it! People who have problems with XP are likely to be those with hacked copies, and these copies now don't work well because they may have been altered if the user tried to get SP2 but got scanned by the BIT (background intelligent transfer) which was actually more a setup to check the veracity of the program key and identification.
When Microsoft said it would deliver windows 95, it basically came through with Windows 98 SE. Now Microsoft basically delivered its' real XP with the release of SP2 (like it or not)..
