Over at ZDNet, the always-insightful Ed Bott just listed Five things Steve Ballmer won't tell you about Windows 7. This in advance of Ballmer's upcoming CES keynote speech, where it's expected the Microsoft head-honcho will unveil Windows 7 Beta 1.

It's an interesting read, as most of Bott's articles are, but there's one "thing Ballmer won't tell you" that really stands out: "Good luck finding drivers for all your old XP-only hardware." Here's a telling excerpt:

Over the course of the last two years, I've discarded or replaced a handful of devices that didn't work at all with Vista: several network cards, some storage adapters, a scanner, a TV tuner. In every case, I had to replace the unsupported part or do without. The good news is that the driver model for Windows 7 is identical to that of Windows Vista, so all the hardware I now own (and all the drivers I've bookmarked and saved) will work on upgraded systems.

So, what happens to people who decided to skip Vista and stick with XP, for whatever reason? They get to face those exact same issues. If your device doesn't have a driver for Windows Vista, it will not work under Windows 7. Period. Full stop.

Ah, the irony. Many businesses have opted to skip Vista owing to supposed software-compatibility issues, but may end up with hardware-compatibility issues when they make the move to Windows 7.

This all goes back to a point we've been making for a while: Skipping Vista is a bad idea. Yes, it's popular -- even fashionable -- to dump on the OS, but the longer you linger with Windows 2000 or XP, the more security risks you face, and the more hurdles you may encounter down the road.

Whatever you do, make sure to read all five of Bott's predictions, especially the ones about "clueless OEM partners" and "killer apps." Good stuff.