Revolt Now or Later?

One of the main ideas of Marx is the fact that the capitalist system needs to be overthrown. The question then is, when? Obviously a huge revolution of a whole system is not an easy task, so many have tried to reform it and make it a little bit easier for the people. Is this a good thing? Marx's followers were split on the idea. On one hand there were people that did not want reform because they thought that reformations would distract the oppressed. Rather than thinking about, and struggling for their rights, they would be worrying about the levels of oppression they experienced. These thinkers wanted workers to be  held at the worst conditions without reform to force an overthrow of the system. On the other hand, those in favor of reforms thought that reforms were like windows to a better world; you're not there yet, but you can see it and now you want it. These people thought that the glimpses of a better world that are brought about by reforms would cause a chain reaction in the pursuit of better and better lives, culminating in the overthrow of the capitalist system. The editors then go on to note that the capitalist system in Marx's time is so changed by the reforms that have occurred that many communist ideas are actually embedded in it. So my question is; what do we have left to do? If all of these reforms have made today's capitalism merely a shadow of what it used to be, is it really that bad? To what further extent do we need to act towards communism to defeat capitalism?