"How to install Windows XP in 5 hours or less" wherein Mark runs into the fact that XP Pro is actually shorthand for "extremely painful process".
Not sure about his concept of the half-life - haven't seen it yet with any of my XP boxen, but then again, I do undertake moderately serious maintenance every six months or so. Not sure what his regimen is. XP Pro isn't really built for professionals. I wish MS would take a page out of Corel's playbook and ask you some question during install that lead you towards an installation that makes sense for what you need to use the OS for - ie XP for Developers, XP for hardcore office workers, XP for executive assistants. No instead we get "Photo Album wizards" in XP Pro.
I know there's a bunch of smart people at Microsoft, but why aren't they thinking?