I ran 95 on home-built hardware and it NEVER crashed. I ran OS/2 on the same hardware and it never crashed.
I upgraded to 98 and it crashed its ass off while OS/2 kept plugging away. Then came Red Hat 5, and it was badass for stability.
I went to NT 4 and it was rock solid, just like OS/2 and Linux, then I upgraded the hardware again, and everything was fine. Then I got 2000 Pro, and it was stable. Then I upgraded, ending up with some dubious hardware. 2000 would gimme BSODs all the time. Linux and NT 4 were fine.
I've had XP Pro running on my mom and sister's computers for a year with zero problems. I've had Mac OS X running for a year with no problems. My dad's had a file/print server running with Red Hat 6.1 since early 2000... not one hiccup. He also runs 2000 Pro on a Dell P2 350 and a Compaq Deskpro P2 450. He put XP Pro on a K6-2 550 'book and it's good.
I think we've gotten to the point where any OS is rock solid on the right hardware. I've seen XP be shit and be badass. I've seen OS/2 be super, then crap out suddenly when you change hardware. I've seen Linux do it. I've seen OS X be superfly on my iMac, but be a bitch on the G4 that I bought and sold within a month.
I still ain't got anything against XP aside from spyware. But I still hate MS. They might finally be hiring competent programmers, but they still need to DIE.