A lot of people herald Windows XP as the best Windows, but I question if they ever used Windows 2000.
Also, I remember that Windows 2000 required new drivers for lots of devices, but XP stayed compatible with most Windows 2000 drivers, so it ended up supporting more hardware immediately at its release.
It's been 25 years, so my memory may be incorrect.
I’ll grant that a cheap Windows laptop was the right call up until recently if price—not ease of use and maintenance—was the overwhelmingly dominant factor and a laptop was absolutely necessary. But the answer for a cheap device for a non-technical person with aspecific needs (email, browsing, media consumption) has been an iPad for a long time at this point.
Now... I'm glad I got a Mac.