With Microsoft's release of Windows 7 and Apple's Release of OS 10.6 the world of personal computers has slipped quietly into a new era.
On the shelf beside my desk are a series of disk recovery utilities that were once a key part of my kit. System crashes and the need to completely rebuild a disk or server were a regular part of what was required to be in the business. I have not needed to update those utilities in years, because the systems have been so stable.
It was not that long ago that the regular system backup was used every couple of months to restore a system. Now those backups have to be explicitly tested because the combination of better disk technologies and much more stable operating systems have meant that system backups are needed, but seldom used.
Knock on wood.