MS is offering an upgrade to Win8 Pro for only $40. The really interesting bit is it includes upgrading from WinXP.
http://windowsteamblog.com/windows/b/bloggingwindows/archive/2012/07/02/upgrade- to-windows-8-pro-for-39-99.aspx
They are also offering an upgrade from Win7 to Win8 Pro for $14.99 for newly purchased systems (June 2 2012 - Jan 31 2013).
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-au/windows/upgrade- offer?ocid=O_WOL_EVE_INTL
https://windowsupgradeoffer.com/en/
Now we know how MS is going to entice people to use Win8.
La Pingouin has a laptop running Vista & I'll seriously consider doing it. I won't quite say it's a no-brainer for WinXP users but you're going to have
to do
something by April 2014.
Yes, the Metro interface is a fair turn-off for many users, but I'm betting the third party programs (such as ViStart) that work now will continue to do so after release.