I guess they'll be pretty upset when Windows 8 comes out then.
That said, my parents have been using (Ubuntu) Linux for the last 5 years without any problems at all. It's definitely reduced support calls from them (no more crashes or viruses). They're still using the same old PCs from when I first installed Ubuntu. When I visit them, I install a new LTS release, if it's available (one's released every 2 years), a process that takes about 30 minutes of my active attention.
In China this is how Windows was installed:
Windows XP with the latest drivers, KB fix, updates, service packs, and Office, IM, games, tools, packed into a 300MB Norton Ghost image, boot from a USB disk (the USB disk can even act as an USB-CDROM device), everything is automated, the image-to-disk copy takes about 10 minutes. Then you have everything ready.
IE6 was installed like this like 10 years ago.