I’d just like to echo the above, though with the caveat that “because I’m sure I’ll need to at some point” can actually be an OK reason if you’re actually sure it’s true.
I just recently upgraded from XP to Win 7 myself, and while I really do like Win 7 (I REFUSED to touch Vista!), there are enough changes and annoyances that if everything was still supported under XP, I’d prefer to have kept that. It’s not that Win 7 is worse, though, it’s just that it’s different. That and the fact that some of my old stuff doesn’t work under the new OS.
But for me, this is a constant issue. I preferred Win 98 to XP (more DOS compatibility!), and I preferred DOS to Win 98 (using a mouse is SLOW! And why would my OS take more than 2 MB?!?), and I upgrade because I know the old system really just doesn’t support the latest and greatest (being stuck with DOS games forever would suck).
I remember reading a Diablo preview, and it was announced that it would require Windows 95. I was incensed that they made you buy it. My parents ended up getting the OS by then anyway. And there were driver issues then, and especially when Win 2000 came out. People seem to have forgotten these.
When I was younger, we had an 8088, then got a 486. By my child logic, we would get the next computer in the series every fourth generation, so a 786.
The main reason to upgrade for me is crap like the SATA issue. I don’t mind a bare-bones OS that runs the programs I need it to run, and I’ve been using XP for 10 years now. But seriously, taking apart my computer and hooking up some hardware just to install it is the line in the sand.
