Real World Consequences of Never-ending Windows versions
I met with a potential client. They have a very specialized business that involves analyzing data on hard drives. The data can take many forms and so they have a multitude of software tools that assist in compiling information. And like most businesses, they have a Windows-based network. But the primary applications they are using are not Microsoft. They are 3rd party, industry-specific applications that are mission-critical. If their programs are not running properly, they are not able to work and not able to run the business.
I thought I would throw out my two cents on the release of Windows 7. It is tomorrow, October 22. I have been working with it for the past few months and think that it is 90% better overall than Windows Vista. I will not go into the myriad of reasons except to say that it is considerably more compatible with XP and some of the older applications and peripherals than Vista was. Microsoft went so far as to design a copy of Windows XP into Vista so that you can literally run XP inside your Win7 computer simultaneously just in case you have a very antiquated application that absolutely, positively will not work on anything 
except XP (also for those that are afraid to commit to a newer operating system).