Quote - > Quote - I've been waiting for someone to bring this up!  Did Microsoft stop innovating?  No!  Did they stop supporting older OS's?  No! 

Yeah they did.

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/products/lifecycle

Windows XP stopped being supported last year, and Vista ended October 22, 2011.

Apple End of lifed my intel mac mini from 2006 with Lion. Nvidia end of lifed my perfectly working 3dfx card that I paid $200 for when they bought them out in the early 2000s. My iphone 3gs will probably stopped being supported next year despite it still works well. My printer lagged behind but finally got minimal support for the last two OSX upgrades and was the only hardware I've bought that failed before it stopped being supported.

If I want the latest and greatest software, I need to upgrade in those cases. If I can't afford it, I need to save up and get the required equipment to install the lastest software. My new macbook can run lion, and I'm saving to upgrade my desktop to a six-core.

Also notice, XP was supported for a long time... but microsoft found they couldn't innovate keeping legacy code around. And Windows 7 was basically a big bug fix from Vista, which they quickly swept under the rug.

I'm stll getting XP security updates as well. I thought I read or heard somewhere that Microsoft changed their plans and extended security updates because so many businesses are still using XP and they didn't want to lose their business when the economy turns around and they're finally able to upgrade. Most businesses never upgraded to Vista and many will need new PCs to use Windows 7 properly. I know there have been no new service packs though.