Well, the first thing to say is that we've worked hard to maintain compatibility, so that any program written with an earlier version of Mathematica can run without change in 3.0, and any notebook can be converted.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
There are a few very small incompatible changes - I really doubt most people will ever run into them.
There are musicians who go through their lives sort of shedding their skins. For me, I've always felt backward-compatible to Version 1.0.
I use Windows; '98 second edition and it works very good for me. You know, I just started on the computer about 9 months ago and am fascinated with the possibilities. I don't know what I would do without it now.
Support for alternate languages will largely depend on the underlying OS.
If I say I've got two versions of Word - that old one from 1982 that's perfect, with zero defects; or the new one that's got all this cool new stuff, but there might be a few bugs in it - people always want the new one. But I wouldn't want them to operate a plane I was on with software that happened to be the latest greatest release!
I can't wait for them to convert old movies to 3D. I am 100% confident I want them to convert 'Terminator 2' to 3D more than I want anything in the world.
From day one our next generation system will run all our exsisting software - so that gives us a head start.
There is a constant need for new systems and new software.
But we also think that we've got more quite alot more support than any new format has ever had.
Any version of Windows is going to have lots of great new things that people use and things that are tough.