Microsoft can’t leave well enough alone for several reasons:
Number ONE:They want to sell lots of software,and forcing users to upgrade keps the money rolling in!
Number Two:Programmers always want to show they could have done it better or differently or more cleverly,and having access to the latest hardware,they disdain average users who simply want the computer on the desk to keep doing the job it has been doing satisfactorily.Many of us RESENT the periodic abandonemt of our systems forcing us to buy new just to do the same tasks.What actual new capabilities have been made available to users with each iteration of Windows? Did we not have email,internet,networking,spreadsheets,wordprocessing,desktop publishing, photo,music, and video capabilities in Win 95! I had those things on my Win95.And my use has not been made easier by the huge bloated programs that succeeded that era.The only difference I see is that the average user’s internet connection now can deliver fullscreen movies whereas my Win 95 or Mac OS9 was limited by the availavable internet connection speed of 56k.But I’d rather watch a movie on a bigger screen anyway.For an experiment I may dig out an old PC and try it on DSL;I know Win98SE did DSL,don’t remember if Win95 could.
Number Three:There is a huge industry of people making very good money “supporting” Microsoft products;i.e. retraining users how to use the new program they really didn’t want,need, or ask for.I have a huge stack of books explaining the various MS products;of course it is all obsolete in a very few years.
I think the computer people are like the man with only a hammer and they insist every task is best done by using a hammer,although it may require the “new,improved” hammer.
FINALLY, I posit that the Electronics Industry of post -1990 is the most successful group ever at implementing,selling, and profiting from planned obsolescence.The landfills are piled with perfectly functional,serviceable electronics whilst the consumers’ pockets are emptied to buy the latest because last years’ item is no longer supported!
I would suggest they are also in cahoots with the hardware manufacturers. I have one newer desktop that has Win 7 on it and I'm happy with it. I also have older boxes and laptops that still have XP. These do not have the RAM and CPUs to let them work with Win 7, let alone Win 8, but they work perfectly well with XP. When MS stops supporting XP, my options will be
1)buy new computers
2) upgrade the motherboards, RAM and CPUs so they will work with Win 7
3) switch to Linux
4) toss perfectly good computers.
You can bet Dell, HP, etc. hope I and all the others in my boat choose option 1).