No. If you're really nervous about telemetry, etc. then maybe. Otherwise, Win7 looks ancient if you get used to 10 -- it's faster, it has better display scaling, better multi-monitor support and window management.
Likewise, my Win7 workstation has a couple of large monitors attached, but five minutes setting up WinSplit Revolution gave me a more convenient way of organising all that space and the windows within it than any version of Windows I've ever used (and most window managers on other platforms, for that matter). There are a couple of annoyances, but those seem to be more to do with the graphics drivers and use of DisplayPort than anything else; is Win10 noticeably better at handling such things for you?
Windows 8.1 with Classic Shell's start menu is the sweet spot at the moment if you ask me. It has the explorer and task manager additions that windows 8 brought in, boots faster than 7 and doesn't have as much of the UI replaced. I'm going to be honest and say that if there was a way to get rid of the charms bar and network panel, it'd be perfect.
TBH I'm going to use it until EOL in 2023 and then do something else.
10 is really, really similar to 8 as well. The only noticeable difference is, again, the start menu. There are small things here and there (and a much nicer graphical design), but otherwise it's pretty much the same.
If you have enough storage, I'd suggest just trying Windows out as a dual-boot option. If you don't like it, you can always remove the Windows partition, no harm done.
What exactly was the better way though? I'm still on Win7 in my primary computer, having Win10 (and previously Win8) installed on my secondary.
On Win7 I press the start button and type the name of what I want to run (or find) - this lets me do what I want very quickly with a minimum of interruption.
Win8 was similar, but it threw a jarring fullscreen slab of apps in my face. I say it was similar because it still let me start typing right away and get to the stuff I wanted with minimal hassle.
Win10 is a whole different beast, I feel. The search was decoupled from the start menu; but the start menu itself returned to most of its former glory (unintrusive, no jarring screen transition). The key factor here is that I can no longer just start typing to get to an app, and I have yet to invest the necessary time into seeing if it is at all possible since it's still my secondary machine.
Right now, amidst all of the anti-Microsoft scaremongering, I'm also finding it less likely that I'll keep going down the Microsoft path. Linux is starting to look more and more attractive, with OS X a strong second place contender. And not just for the start menu.
Not sure what you mean; Windows 10 is exactly like Windows 7 and Windows 8 here. You hit the start button / start key, you start typing, and the things you want start popping up.
I can assure you, that is not the way it currently functions on my Win10 machine. For me the search bar is a magnifying glass next to the start menu, at a minimum, or a full-blown text field. Regardless of which state, I have to click it before being able to type and search.
I really hate seeing this "blame the victim" mentality.
People here on Hackers News might be prepared to seek and deploy alternative start menus, but for many, perhaps most, non-technical users, it's a difficult and scary prospect.
To be clear, Microsoft thought they were improving the start menu (the point-and-click, non-search usage of it) as well. It may be better, for all I know. But starting with Windows 8, I just totally stopped using it, so I can't weigh in on that.
Windows also comes with a tutorial at the beginning that explains the new UI.