Originally Posted by Lucio
I'd go one step further and say that's practically no reason to make the switch. If you have a stable PC running WindowsXP, there's nothing to gain from making the switch to a new OS at the moment. There's precious little "Vista only" software out there and the gains for gaming have yet to materialize.
It's not that Vista is a bad choice for an OS, far from it, on a new machine it's a better choice and I personally am quite happy with my Vista experience, but I can't ever see a reason to upgrade from XP.
Without wishing to seem contrary for the sake of it, by adopting one view then the other, I can see reasons why people would adopt it too.
Perhaps the biggest is that sooner or later, the disadvantages will be outweighed by advantages .... though it might skip a generation straight past Vista. I'm no OS guru (or even close to it), but I could see how, for instance, TPM and Bitlocker could be a reason, though clearly, more for business users than home ones. The structure of the driver model might be a good reason to move too, and so might coherent corporate support when the tip-over point to a new infrastructure arrives. Even default settings and UAC, for all that it can also be a right pain, can be beneficial in many situations.
As with the case for not adopting it, the case for adopting it varies, and for each of us (individual or business), it depends on why you're switching, what advantages you'll gain and what it'll cost. And by "cost", I don't just mean licence fees. In fact, for many business users, that'll be a small part of the total cost.
Personally, I think it'd be daft if I suggested there were no benefits to switching, but I equally think it'd be daft to suggest that switching is
always a bright idea. It all depends on the situation, what you expect to get from it, what it'll cost, what disruption it'll cause, and so on.