Well if that's the case then the manufacturers of these things (and those who sell software for them) need to start sneaking in some planned obsolescence to protect their revenue streams. Nobody likes to release a product that lasts forever... Well, except our beloved empeg guys.

I probably should have said "for general use *today*'. There always will be some churn in components and software that will force businesses to upgrade. Plus, MSFT and others just stop selling software/OS versions, so you get driven into new software/hardware if you want to add new desktops. I just think that the cycle has gotten longer and slowed down. For a business with no growth plans, it may be *very* long.

Seriously though, I think that Microsoft et. al release bloated code on purpose so they can help sell more new PC's with faster processors, which will be bundled with new versions of the O/S, which will be obsoleted by new versions of bloated code, which will sell more PC's, which will be bundled with the newer O/S, which will be obsoleted by....

Yup. If this not absolutely intentional, they certainly feel the freedom to behave like this. And hardware/chip makers probably egg them on.