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...just expected. We knew it had to happen, and thinking ahead M$ had to retire XP at least a couple years before their next generation OS is released, or they'll be stuck supporting (with patches...) three versions at the same time. Personally, I think Vista is an unstable bloated resource hog, but I remember everyone saying / thinking the same thing about XP when it came out too... With increased focus on Vista (now that XP has been semi-retired) hopefully some final patches to fix the remaining issues will be forthcoming.

I agree with Solly, Midori (and MinWin) sound interesting. Design from scratch, not by adding bandaided upgrades on an OS that was a bandaided upgrade to an OS that was a bandaided upgrade...

Unless M$ completely rethinks the restructure of their OS (as seems to be the case), a move by big business to Linux is just a matter of time. M$ can't compete with a free full-featured OS for ever.

I'll slightly disagree with DE on one point... more options for the customer is a GOOD thing. Sure, the pricing doesn't make sense from the consumer side, but the idea of choosing the features you want for a lower price is better than only one "all inclusive" version for one (high) price. I think the best idea going forward would be to have M$ sell it's basic (stripped-down) OS for a lower price, and offer plug-ins (Browser, DirectX, multimedia, resource sharing, firewall, Terminal Services...) for a few extra $'s each. They obviously want to milk more $'s from those with deeper pockets (businesses), so charge more for the options that are mainly used professionally. This could open the door to non-M$ plug-ins too (good for us, bad for M$). Choose the one firewall you want, without having to disable one you were forced to paid for (the one built-in to Windows). Choose PCAnywhere vs. Terminal Services... Firefox vs. I.E..