I think it's always been a common practice among large business / school to let others find the bugs and fix them before they upgrade. Some will get one or two systems and test them out but a complete upgrade usually doesn't happen until the product has been out for a few months. I attend Utah Valley State College and received a similar message at the end of the year stating almost the same things. As for myself I've been using IE 7 since it went public and haven't had really any problems or compatablity issues with any of the sites I visit.