So...which, if any, of those references will take you to a graphic image?

It seems to me, the editors have done a pretty good job of minimizing exposure.

Exactly what do you think is "awesome" about IE9 or Office 2010 on Win7, that is not provided by the earlier versions on XP, or by Firefox and OpenOffice?

Thanks in advance for providing some actual details.

Thanks, those are real details.

I'm not a PC gamer, so I don't have any need for more than 3.5GB (actually 3.25GB on our biggest system) RAM, nor DirectX 10. The most extreme stuff I do is video transcoding. Second, realtime video and image editing. Third, video playback with various codecs, ranging from mjpeg to avc/h264. But I leave the games for our consoles.

Re: drivers, I do use lots of odd pieces of hardware like serial microcontroller programmers, DMX controllers, dataloggers, Arduinos, 3D 6dof controllers, Bluetooth audio bridges, GPS devices, scanners, etc. Never had a problem with any XP drivers. However I'm fairly sure that some of these devices do not support more recent Windows versions.

Thanks. Yeah, I hope I'm aware. I've been using Windows since v3.0 and Mac since System 6 (not to mention OS/2 and other client OS's). I did pick up a USB-key virus on one machine a few years back, before MS finally patched XPSP3 to really allow you to turn off autoplay without the registry hack. But that experience just convinced me that new OS versions, which keep doing more "auto" stuff, will only have more attack vectors than the old ones...

Correct, I run 32-bit, because 64-bit gives no benefit for my applications.

I do work with lots of video and large image files. Rarely more than 30 megapixels/image though. 30 megapixels * 3 bytes = 90 megabytes in the buffer, a rather small number compared to a modern bloated web browser running a few dozen tabs, flash, java, acrobat, and silverlight. A 2GB machine is more than enough for this.

Really, I was just looking for any features or enhancements that might steer me towards Win7 or Win8. The impression I'm getting from replies here is that there are no worthwhile features/enhancement, just for support for new hardware that I don't need.

My biggest CPU usage is video transcoding. For that, it's going to take a long stretch of cycles regardless of the processor, so I don't have a problem throwing a machine at the problem for 30 minutes instead of 15 minutes. It's not like I'm waiting on that machine to do something else.

Memory support...my XP machines do max out at 2.0GB to 3.25GB depending on the mobo. But this isn't a problem. The OS and many services easily run in a couple hundred MB, without virtual memory. My biggest memory consumer is a web browser, which may exceed 1GB with lots of tabs and plug-ins, but that usually only happens on my main work machines. So 2GB is far more than enough for most of the machines.

What are the "1000 other modern abilities" that you seem to think are provided by Windows beyond NT/2000/XP?

Strange and funny. I have heard many people complain about their old software not working on the recent windows versions, but I've heard absolutely no one complaining about software not running on XP. Do you have any example? Even just a single, oddball, unusual example?

Can you explain what, exactly, you think that I am not doing to manage my fleet of machines correctly? Imaging and periodic updating/reimaging are standard practices in any major IT organization I've encountered. As are replacing hard drives at regular intervals. What do you think I'm doing wrong? Thanks!

That metaphor is thoroughly broken. The safety and efficiency benefits of ABS, seat belts, and fuel injection are provably worthwhile. Also, these have been standard features on most cars for the last 15-45 years. There is absolutely no comparison.

The question was, what features would inspire me to upgrade from XPSP3 to 8?

I'll add: what would inspire me to take the massive hit to performance and resource consumption? Again, note, one of my still-running machines is a P3 800Mhz 128MB laptop, which performs very snappily with XP. It serves video and plays MPEG2 DVDs.

Fwiw, two of our seven laptops are Thinkpad X-series tablet PCs. Yeah I know, the definition of a "tablet" has changed in the last few years, but these "tablets" have pressure-sensitive wacom stylus digitizers, and one of them also has a resistive touch-screen layer. Both running Windows XP Tablet PC Edition 2005. So...what does Windows 8 add, feature-wise, above this OS? That was really my original question.

Such as? This was exactly my question.

Why? It is a piece of deterministic software, not a religious conundrum.

Also assuming that any support is relevant. I do keep all our Windows machines updated at least once a year, but frankly, I'm not sure how important that is since most of them run behind a firewall. The FUD does not seem to apply in this case.

This is a dead serious question, so please do not downmod because it doesn't agree with some corporate agenda. ;)

I currently run Windows XPSP3 on 7 laptops, and 1 desktop, at home. Behind a NAT firewall. I've never had a virus or other security problem. I re-image and update approximately every 2 years because, yes, Windows does slow down and break with age, and I also want a backup of the latest apps. But otherwise XP works great, with minimal interference,on machines with as little as 800Mhz P3, 128MB RAM.

I think that most folks here realize that Vista was an intentional boondoggle to make Windows 7 look better. But in total seriousness....why would I move from XP to 7 or 8?

Thanks.

Yeah, I got that impression, though I wasn't sure if he was working a trackpad or jog-wheel or something else.

I'd rather have the trackpad as a separate wireless controller, so I could keep my hand in my pocket, or on the steering wheel, or wherever else, instead of reaching up to my temple every time I need to control the glasses.

Economy of motion will be a critical factor of adoption.

These glasses are definitely coming.

From the video, they look small enough to be practical very very soon. Nice work, Sergey. :)

Presumably they will connect via bluetooth to a smartphone or keypad in your pocket for an easy finger-based UI. And of course there will be a voice UI, like we have now with a small & simple BT headset.

The big questions are a) battery life, b) how the various governments will assess this as a potential driving hazard, and c) whether Apple will steal Google's thunder by doing the same thing, only sleeker.

I, for one, will be happy to buy a set of these glasses if the price is right. Hopefully less than US$1000.

Indeed.

Jefferson also wrote that the a rebellion every 20 years was necessary for the health of a sound government, and that the constitution should be revisited and revised every 19 or 20 years.

It is no coincidence that the federal reserve banking cartel relegated his image to the oddball $2 bill. ;)

TFS talks about the "huddlers" website, which was absolutely nothing to do with this topic. TFA mentions (briefly) that the artist-portfolio site 4ormat skipped IE support. What the hell? Do the editors here not even bother to skim the articles they post?

Anyway, it ain't a business app. If you create web apps for the "enterprise market", you absolutely positively need to support IE. Often back to IE6, yes, even today. I don't like it, but that's just the way it works in big business. Platform shift is veeery slow when a business has tens of millions of customers, partners, and employees who rely on a particular application.

Anyway I don't understand the $100K savings. Come on, what startup is dumb enough to write directly to the browser in HTML & CSS? There are tons of AJAX/DHTML libraries that hide all of the differences across browsers and browser versions. smartclient.com and extjs come to bind as a couple of systems with extreme breadth & depth.

Reagan was an extreme example, because he was, both before and during his presidency, clearly and definitively an actor.

One could argue that every president after Jimmy Carter, and many presidents before him, were also corporate shills. Or more accurately, tools. Obama included. Clinton at least appeared jovial, which was good for national morale, but I suppose that's appropriate during an engineered bubble. Bush Jr was the litmus test of how much mind-numbingly obvious abuse Americans would take without fomenting a revolution. Turns out, there is no known ceiling for that abuse at present.

One could also argue that the Democrat vs Republican, left vs right, liberal vs conservative splits are a very simple divide & conquer strategy by those who actually wield power. Let the plebes fight it out over their programmed favorite "team"...but the same stuff is going to happen regardless of which party or president is purchased in any given term.

Campaign funding numbers, which are a matter of public record, support this theory.

Subsequent comments in this thread also support it. :)

You can always use the Ronald Reagan defense: "I don't recall"

When you steal 600 million, you can buy the cops and politicians for 10 million, and keep the rest.