After having it on my new computer for a few months, I've actually grown to like it a lot. It's much easier to organize the things I use most instead of having my desktop clogged with a bunch of icons.

What's the difference between the illegal copies and the legitimate copies? Just curious.

The copies themselves aren't legal or illegal. The legality is determined by compliance of the terms of use, which dictates that a copy must be activated with a legitimate key and under legitimate circumstances. Illegal use would be to bypass the need for activation by some third-party software, or simply never activating the copy to begin with.

Although, Microsoft's answer to un-activated copies is simply to make the background a black screen saying that the copy of Windows is not genuine, and disallowing any Windows updates.
Beyond that, you'll just have to put up with nag screens, but for the most part, the operating system is still fully functional.

Here's my Windows 7 desktop:

http://imageshack.us/a/img818/6118/desktopcurrent.png

No clog. All most-used items and locations are situated in a dock, settled unobtrusively near the start bar.
I think the problem is the way a person chooses to organize. It doesn't require a new operating system to enforce new organization.

I sort of had to learn to deal with it since the computer I bought was a fantastic price, and came with Windows 8, so I figured I may as well learn something new. I love Windows 7 as well, i've got it on my laptop. But I love Windows 8 as well, I didn't have much issue figuring it out.

^ Having an icon dock is almost standard for me now, desktop icons just seem archaic and cumbersome. Also if you have some nice desktop wallpapers, they can be clearly seen instead of being covered over with a mess of icons.

I'm sticking with my Windows 7/Lubuntu dual-boot for the time being. My laptop came with Vista but I upgraded it to 7 as soon as it was released. I have no desire at the moment to upgrade to 8 or get a new laptop with 8 installed, any time I've used it on a friend's laptop I've hated it. I guess using it on a tablet wouldn't be too bad as it seems more designed for them, but it doesn't seem well suited for use on a PC.

I think it's release is badly-timed. The PC market is declining and as opposed to Windows 8 boosting the PC market, which was it's aim, it is instead accelerating it's decline because smartphones and tablets seem more attractive in comparison.

How do you get a dock on Windows 7? I've never seen an option for that instead of using icons? Although I hardly use icons either and I've just put everything in my quick access toolbar next to the Start button.

They don't come with Windows you have to download one. I use ObjectDock. There's a few others you can try as well but ObjectDock suits me just fine.

Rocketdock is the one I use. Have been using it since XP. Pretty easy to set up and customize. My only recommendation is to find an icon pack that goes with your theme to use instead of the standard windows icons. Just to give it all some cohesiveness.

I find contextual icons to be really good for icon docks. For instance, if you look on mine, in the middle bar, you know which icons are my documents, downloads, pictures, music, etc.
I didn't have any more relevant icons in the particular pack, but it's good enough for me. The best thing about it is you don't have to mouse over to see the text. You just go straight there.
I'll definitely be looking into finding a contextual icon pack with a wider scope to help fill out some of the other stuff.

It makes a pretty big difference for me.

I'll check it out. I always liked the dock feature in Mac OS, so if I can get something similar in Windows that would be great.