In the last decade there have been 6 versions of windows. Windows 2000 (probably the best job they ever did) up to Windows 7.
In the same period Apple has put out 9 versions now we are on drunken master snow mountain lion 3 :-)
All the versions from the two companies are for two reasons. The first is to fix the bad coding they did then the bad patches they laid over to replace the bad coding. The 2nd is to keep digging deeper into our pockets.
My day involves
Email
Word
Watching Video
PDFs
Copy, paste
Forum
Web browsing
Spread sheets sometime.
I think I am very typical. I could still do that with Mandrake 8.0. My point being is nearly none of us even approach the computing capabilities of either a MAC or Win7 machine. Its really about bigger better best branding.
I don't need to be super literate about computers any more than I need to be able to rebuild my big screen TV. They are tools, you just need to know what button to push.
The evolution of Visual Basic from OS2 (IBM) the most stable windows ever written IMHO. They all do the same thing. Click a picture of a button and it sends a line of code.
I typed this on a PC the same way I would type this on a Linux box or a Mac. Not a single soul in this thread can see the windows logo or an apple embedded in the letters. It all works just fine.
That is why I shop price.
