Microsoft has announced it’s “NEW” operating system “Vista” - and without a doubt it will revolutionize more than our desktops. Again - there are hardware changes afoot, and horsepower requirements will again drive hardware purchases. That revolution will most certainly occur at an accounting level.
Additional resource costs, resourcing costs, and maintenance costs abound and as much as we, the IT professionals choose to bitch moan and complain about the coming of another OS - we have few alternatives. MacOS is a wonderful alternative - but it also requires a shift of platform (and therefore skill set) for our IT brethren so count it out (except for those smart / passionate enough to have embraced both.)
Past history shows us - it’s better to ride the tsunami than stand in it’s path.