I've used XP at home and at work for many years. In August 2011 I bought a new laptop with Windows 7 Pro and I'm happy with it but it isn't noticeably better than XP in my experience. However, it's sufficiently similar that it didn't take much getting used to - unlike that horrible Office 2007 ribbon. The only time I upgrade my OS is when I need new hardware, so Win 7 will last me for the next 5 years at least. At work we're slowly migrating to Win 7 on new PCs but we still have plenty of old ones running XP very satisfactorily. I wonder how much longer Win 7 will be available on new PCs because it's such a step change that I don't see businesses taking kindly to it with all the staff retraining and consequent reduction in productivity. What's Microsoft trying to do - bankrupt businesses using its OS? It wouldn't surprise me if a business faced with switching to Win 8 may decide to switch to Linux instead - if retraining is necessary, why not retrain on a free/low cost OS? If this happens in a big way, Microsoft could well have shot themselves in the foot, if not the heart!