IMHO I think WinxpSP3 is not viable for an average joe anymore. We use it at work but the IT guys know all the tricks to keep it from becoming sluggish. Right now you can't hand a kid an XP computer and expect him to be happy with it after a few months. And you know that no kid wants Dad on their computer fixing thing. But to give XP credit it outlasted Vista. Now I really like Win7, it is a great OS. I am a bit ticked that MS is coming out with Win8 next year. I understand it is mainly to grab the small devices market? I'm buying a new SB system in a few months and frankly won't want to upgrade to Win8 next year or anytime soon. Do we think Win7 will outlast Win 8, the way Xp did ?
Only reason XP outlasted anything is because MS didn't put out a new os for like 10 years and vista was a POS.. if Win8 is another ME or Vista then its possible but i'm pretty sure MS won't do another 10 year deal
various sources have published roadmaps for release ,and it would seem that the general concencus is that future OSs are likely to be released on a 2-3 year timescale .some have even claimed that windows 8 will appear around july 2011, a more likely time would be around a year later .mid 2012. microsoft allways continue support for previous OSs to around 2 years (give or take a few month) so expect a new OS "windows 8?" any time after mid 2011 and before the end of 2012. if that happens ,expect windows 7 to be suppoerted 2 years beyond windows 8 release , putting support for windows 7 ending between early or late 2014. windows 7 will remain viable as long as it has support . regardless of windows 8 release.