That's a great observation. I've had similar thoughts about Windows 8/10 changes and the reaction of their long term users. Incremental does seem to be the best

That's a great observation. I've had similar thoughts about Windows 8/10 changes and the reaction of their long term users. Incremental does seem to be the best way. People also tolerate dramatic changes well if there's an option to revert to the old ways. Which is something Microsoft used to do well. Almost every big user-facing change, like the Aero desktop, could be reverted back to "Classic" if the user wanted. Or a feature considered obnoxious could be disabled. Either via the Control Panel, or via a group policy. It's difficult to hate a new feature or UI change if you can simply turn it off. But, with 8 and 10, they switched to a much more restrictive attitude and their reputation took a considerable hit. This is something Apple is doing well with iOS. Obviously, 6->7 was a disruptive (and controversial) transition. But since then, their incremental approach seems to have worked very well.