New
#81
For a couple of years now, I've been saying "If you think MS is having a hard time killing off Windows XP, wait until they have to kill off Windows 7."
MS is working on both problems by offering a low-cost upgrade to 8, that will work on either XP or 7. The upgrade is to the "Pro" version, which does little more for home users, but a lot more for office users. That should help get XP out of the office.
So the question is: Will MS offer Windows 9 as a low-cost upgrade? First, they have to consider the fact that Apple upgrades are low-cost, and Android upgrades are free. Then they have to consider the expense of protecting their legacy systems; by offering a cheap upgrade, MS can desert their older OSes without alienating a lot of customers.
On the other hand, Vista, 7, and 8 will all run on each other's computers. But XP computers are generally older machines that ought to stay with XP. Eventually, MS has to come out with an OS that requires more powerful computers than what we currently have. Then an upgrade will be a bad idea, and MS can simply add the price of the new OS to the price of a new computer.