Using Windows 8 as a windows development platform is inferior to windows 7 if you target legacy users (windows XP) because Windows 8 does not support installing

Using Windows 8 as a windows development platform is inferior to windows 7 if you target legacy users (windows XP) because Windows 8 does not support installing SDKs like DirectX9. You can still compile for those targets but you can't run some of the most useful debug stuff anymore.