Questions like this often turn up suggestions such as Mac, Linux or Windows XP, interesting byt not necessarily what the questioner wants. For those devotees of Windows XP, you may or may not be aware of ReactOS, which is an open source operating system being developed by a bunch of smart guys. It looks somewhat like XP and though still in development, can run Windows programs up to Win 10. I repeat, it's in an early development stage, so don't install it as your primary system just yet but is interesting.
https://www.reactos.org/
Disclaimer, I have no connection with the project.
To the OPs question, though I'm not a great fan of Win10, I only maintain one for :family support, I do think that if you see Windows as your long term OS, you should be on 10 and as others, particularly some of the regular experienced commentators have said, while the automatic updates are not perfect, they do provide the most secure environment, especially for less technically oriented folks. Look back at how much of the serious malware has affected systems which were missing an update, sometimes years old. XP is still a significant target, as Win7 will become in 13 months, when it drops out of extended support.
Why Microsoft doesn't revise their update process like most Linux distributions, where updates are offered on a continuous basis for update at users' convenience in the background, with most not needing a reboot, is beyond me.