Microsoft faced an uphill battle with Vista, taking flak from numerous groups who were opposed to upgrading their existing Windows XP installations without reason. Vista's performance and initial struggles did nothing to help, but it has matured considerably since then and is now more warmly welcomed. Windows 7 has done a lot in persuading people to switch from XP, and according to a recent survey, Windows XP has seen a substantial decline.

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People are (in general) slow to upgrade to a new OS. It's one of those "if it's not broken, then don't fix it" kind of deals. I believe a significant portion of XP users will move to Windows 7 only when they upgrade their hardware or buy a new PC, not from a "I need a new OS" decision. I see XP hanging around for a long, long time....

Great! This means is that more people are switching to Ubuntu.

Ya I really like Windows 7 at work. I still have XP at home but will be upgrading to 7 shortly after it is launched. 7 is really worthwhile upgrade. Now at work I don't see us upgrading any of the work stations to 7 for a long time yet. Why? XP does what we need it to do and cost to purchase new 7 software when it doesn't really offer anything more to office workers. I see most home users upgradijg but for businesses unless they are upgrade happy...I just don't see it happening to fast at all.

A decline of 1% could just be a statistical anomaly. Since Windows 7 currently only has a 1% share it will take years before it can even penetrate 20% of the market. XP will remain the most popular system for years to come. XP is so much faster and better supported than Windows 7 (aka Vista wearing sunglasses).