The problem is that Vista specs required a new machine so users didn't upgrade, then 7 fixed the spec issues, but MS didn't support a direct software upgrade path from XP to 7. Their official recommendation is back up your shit and do a clean install. I suspect that for a lot of XP users, XP was peak compute and they didn't feel a need to upgrade while their computer still worked. These are Luddites and you shouldn't simply dismiss them. This is compounded by the fact that XP users buying a computer today will get Windows 8, which will completely confuse them. MS dug their own grave.