[VanDeKoik]

It’s not welfare.

MS is under no obligation to retard their product development because old people think they are entitled to a static product or they have no desire to learn new features.

Like what company does this?

[Marie]

Microsoft is losing thousands of customers for every change.

How many million Boomers are there? Gen-x is getting up there. My daughter is 23 and she’s frustrated with Windows 8.

The nerds forget who they’re selling to. PEOPLE. Not just nerds. That’s where the bulk of their money is coming from.

Now, if *everyone* (but a few troglodytes) loves progress so much, why is Windows 7 still the best selling OS on the planet again? Why is our own government paying Microsoft to support Windows XP on their systems?

Perhaps the extra training actually costs time, money, and productivity? Maybe?

[ConservativeMind]

Oh, that's precious! The “product development” to which you refer is the attempt by Microsoft to populate their failing phone environment with a unified programming environment, not by making their phones more like a desktop, but by making expensive, fully-functional computers work just like a failed 3-inch screen phone platform!

The complete Windows 8 paradigm was ONLY to make desktop programmers compliant to cross-compile to a Microsoft Phone environment. And THAT has cost Microsoft and their suppliers a TON of lost opportunity and revenue—so much so, that Microsoft is telling all of us, “Our bad. Can we hit the reset button like 0bama and Clinton did with Putin?”

Your defense of Microsoft's disastrous attempt to better itself under extremely questionable conditions, is laughable. I support “moving forward, but at what cost?

How about you tell us next week how well driving your car with your tongue went, as you test out progress in your vehicle? (Marie—that's classic!)

[PAR35]

Are you one of the Microsoft idiots that was responsible for 8?

I’ve been driving for over 40 years, and driven cars decades older than that. I rent a car I’ve never seen before. Gas pedal on the right, brake in the middle, gearshift in one of two locations (except for the old ‘typewriter’ Dodges - how did that work out for Chrysler?) Turn signal on the left stalk; lights either on a stalk or on the left of the dashboard, key on the right. Steering wheel in front of me, radio to my right.

What company retards product development for a static car layout? Pretty much all the smart ones. (OK, there was that VW with paddle shifters (fine for F1, I suppose), and the keyless Nissan with a start button on the dash - add to the list of stupid innovations.)

When you have an easier switch from Windows to Linux than from Windows to Windows, you (Microsoft) are doing it wrong.