The old-guard approach is changing..but, still too many good-old-boys in
the enterprise driven financial approval process to risk change (and
still seen as change for the sake of change) in the big-bucks corporate
world.

Fully agreed. No rational manager will change perfectly working systems
for the sake of change including OS upgrade not to mention for business
applications and backbone systems.

Look at the Windows XP's share which,still, is stubbornly taking around 30%.

And that is why I mentioned "It's not going to change anytime soon, but
it's "enterprises.""

However, the point is that the synergy created by the server products,
client OS, development tools, Office, and consumer service is falling
apart and each category is being attacked heavily by competitors.

When new investments on backbone systems are not bound by Windows
platforms, the linkage between the back- and front-end is broken which
means that it doesn't have to use client Windows as the front-end interface.

So, the old mentality and approach of using business requirements to
creating/forcing consumer needs will not work - for long.

The PDF format afiacs is a logical one due to the ability to commonize
file type and protect the distribution of proprietary information in
documents.

One of the best things coming out of the whole Web-based thing is that
everything is moving, though gradually, to standard protocols and
formats, and PDF is just one of them. And platform will become/is
becoming a less important factor.

Where will it end up ? Maybe your plan will prove true....but imo, your
plan to 'move away' with any significant impact on market based adoption
is a decade away.

A decade would be an optimistic estimate And it's not my plan, sort
of speaking. As they say, Rome wasn't built nor burnt in a day.


Adaptation is necessary well in advance of that
possible objective.

It is happening just in case you didn't notice. Consumer and business
are delaying their purchase/upgrade on Windows PCs.

New investments on backbone systems are gradually moving away from
Windows platforms especially for SMB's and some enterprises.

Windows-based devices are taking a relatively small percentage of the
market share.

Again, the old mentality and approach of using business requirements to
creating/forcing consumer needs will not work - for long.

They need to create something decent to *re-attract* the market, and the
current approach (e.g. Windows 8.x) isn't going to work.