Recently, reports indicate that the crossover point for the two operating systems — that is the now-venerable, 11-year-old Windows XP that simply refuses to die, and the latest production Windows 7 OS that is still finding its legs even as the shadow of the next-and-future Windows 8 OS begins to make itself known — are imminent, according to NetMarketShare. Take a look at these graphs and data points:

NetMarketShare Desktop OS trends

If I read the graphs correctly, the NetMarketShare trend lines for Win 7 and XP indicate that the crossover point will occur in late February or early March, as the two numbers converge in the neighborhood of 40% share for each one. And with Win7 on the way up as Windows XP is on a slow but steady downward course, this finally puts Windows 7 in the driver’s seat.

What’s interesting to me is that different forms of measurement produce the same results (Windows 7 overtaking Windows XP) but at dates as much as half a year apart. It’s all in how you measure, what you measure, and where those numbers come from!