I've had a somewhat similar experience.
Linux was my full-time OS starting in 2002 (Gentoo for about 8 years, then bouncing between Fedora, Mint and Crunchbang). About four months ago I switched my main PC to Windows 7. I actually like it, enough to keep using it. When my laptop finally needed replacing, I went with an SP3 which has been quite nice (Windows 8's interface actually makes sense on a tablet whereas I hate it on desktops/laptops).
Linux-the-OS is still mostly nice. Linux-the-userland reached its zenith about four years ago and has been declining in quality ever since. I found myself spending more and more time dealing with issues stemming from buggy applications and shoddy drivers, enough that it felt like I was back in 2008 again. NetworkManager loses all my VPN passwords, my USB headset doesn't work properly, video driver quality is getting worse instead of better, Flash somehow manages to keep getting worse, even though you'd think that wouldn't be possible at this point, etc.
Windows 7, meanwhile, just works. The biggest gripe I've had so far is the continued lack of support in Explorer for long paths, which causes issues for my nodejs projects (given that their module dependency system has all the sophistication of a high school midterm project). I can work around that easily enough, though. I'm not a twenty-something with time to kill anymore, I can't spend three days tracking down why my USB headset stops outputting sound when the system volume drops below 20% (unless I launch Virtualbox, at which point it magically works again). I like tinkering when time permits, but nowadays I want my system to just work. Linux doesn't do that right now. I still love the OS, but it is no longer practical for me to use it.