Microsoft has just stopped improving products
I think the real problem is MS has stopped to improve their products to the point where it has any value to upgrade at all, except the fear, and fear is subjective.
I've been with XP+Office 2003 in 2010, then XP+Office 2007, then Win7+Office 2010 now, and I really hope to the gods this didn't cost to my employer.
Office: from 2003 to 2010, let's see:
Powerpoint:
plus: animations panels has been enhanced, indeed.
minus: meaningless changes of GUI, loosing productivity
overall: this is a draw to me.
Excel:
plus: hmmm, let me see. No, I can't think of anything.
minus: why the <bip> does "format cells" take 10 s or more to come up ???? Why ?
overall: Excel 2010 is worse than 2003 or 2007
Word:
plus: well, possibly a better TOC management system if I recall.
minus: meaningless changes of GUI, loosing productivity
overall: this is a draw to me.
Now, Windows, lets see between XP (SP2 patched) vs. 7:
plus: sorry, can't name anything. There is something better ????
minus: is different, for the apparent sole purpose of being different from a GUI point of view. Same shit behind of course. BTW, fuck you MS, for replacing the "run command" menu by "shutdown". No fun here. Also, same apparent "boot slower" syndrom each time of boot.
overall: Win 7 is worse than XP
Overall, as many have commented, there is no value to upgrade to 7, and probably to 8 either. It's only a matter of how people are scared not to ... And if what I read of licensing is true (this is not really my thing, my employer pays for it), there HAS to be some value to be put against the cost incurred.
Also, for those claiming Office is necessary vs. OpenOffice or LibreOffice, I really don't agree. The LibreOffice Word and Excel are better than Office now and can even do things MS Office can't do ...