Bought a new PC with Win7 after Xmas to replace the 4.5 yrs old XP machine.
So far, so good. Even managed to get Win7 to work with my old modem (we're still on dial-up).
Your qu "Is it better than XP for web-surfing and photo processing?" ... hard to say, but my guess is that it won't make that huge a difference.
I'd say that when you get your next PC, get one with Win7. Until then stick with XP (unless of course you want to be a bit more radical than that & go to a version of Linux, like Ubuntu ... that can breathe heaps of new life into many an old PC).
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