I agree with you AbRASiON. In all respects. The bottom line is that the PC industry has to move forward, inexorably forward, in order to support this that and the other thing. 64-bit computing. DirectX 10. Touch and Cloud computing. Voice recognition. Multi-core support. The list goes on and on. OS vendors cannot waste time and resources to continue upgrading obsolete operating systems with these new features. Even the Linux world has to continue endlessly coming out with new releases, in order to support new features and drivers. Windows XP has indeed been THE BEST product ever produced by Microsoft. It is such a clear winner, that I still continue to use Windows XP Professional both in the office, and at home. All Microsoft needs to do is come out with a BETTER OS, and then the entire industry will realize it, upgrade, and then move on. That's what happened with the transition to Windows XP. That did not happen with Windows Me, nor did it with Vista. If Microsoft gets it right with Windows 7, then hats off to them, everyone upgrades, and technology advances to the next level. Sure then we have more bloated OS, that DOES work slower if you don't upgrade the hardware. But as technology advances to support this, and machines get more powerful, we can upgrade our operating systems, and still experience acceptable performance. What Microsoft did wrong with Vista is that they tried to force the entire PC industry to upgrade their hardware. And in the current economic climate, they encountered way too much resistance. Now that all that more awesome hardware has been unleashed, and almost everyone is running dual core machines or better, all Microsoft needs to do is repackage the next Vista ServicePack as Windows 7. And get it right. It needs to work acceptably on slower machines. It needs to scream on fast ones. It just has to work. If they get it right, I will upgrade. Everyone will.

(20) The Obama administration will bail-out Google. (21) Alternative energy will finally work its way into this country's energy grid. (22) More and more people will begin riding bicycles to work. (23) People will lose weight, and improve their diets. (24) Apple will launch another shiny new toy, but only the very rich will want to buy it. (25) It will be 2010 before we pull out of this recession, because the Bush administration f$@#-ed us over so bad.