SDB73 - an O/S is just there to run apps. If the apps I need for my work all run under Windows for Workgroups 3.11 (and for some years that was true; they wouldn't run under NT) then so be it.
I have a pile of productive (and expensive) software which doesn't run under win7. My GF has a win7 PC which works with the bog standard stuff and which gives trouble in every other department.
I also have 2 Thinkpad laptops, 2 PCs at home, 2 PCs at work, all running XP and all of them work and do what they are supposed to do. They run a huge range of apps, some common, some highly specialised, dating from early 1990s all the way through present time.
Unix is more reliable, etc, and we have two machines at work running FreeBSD whose uptime is probably years, but they only run one or two apps.
I don't disagree with your view on win7 in an academic sense but if you measure it according to
productivity, and lack of driver hassles with what M$ call "legacy" hardware, then win7 scores pretty badly right now unless you are prepared to throw away all your hardware, and buy all your software all-new and with a great deal of due diligence.
Perhaps the Garmin sim would run under XP under VMware? It might be worth it. OTOH it is not hard to work out a GNS430. The really hard thing is digging out an instructor who knows how they work. When I got my TB20 in 2002, I never found an instructor who even knew how an HSI worked. Maybe Miroku should find an experienced pilot and buy him a beer
