Would you have bought XP2 with your XP working well enough?
Good question. Sometimes I look and see that I have to scroll for a few seconds to view all the "security patches" that I've loaded over the years whenever that little yellow shield shows up down in the bottom bar. If this computer crashed and I had to get a new one, I would probably look for a new computer and load XP on it. (I still have the CD disk in my drawer over there.) So yeah, I would definitely want a product I know is good and reliable, and if there was an improved version of it (ie., I don't give a crap about buzzers, flashers, gadgets, and gimmicks, I'm a grownup thank you) of the same freaking thing, then I would buy it without question rather than reload the old one and spend a day uploading (downloading?) all the "updates".
But it's not so much about what I would buy as it is about all the new computer buyers who enter the market every day. They are not all kids. Microsoft could aim one product at the kids, and a good old-fashioned XP product at the adults.
See, I have no idea, nor do I care, what "OEM" or "BSOD" stands for. (I did figure out that "OS" means "operating system", right?) I think the geniuses and tinkerers and big thinkers at Microsoft and Apple and a lot of other "hi tech" companies forget who their buyers are, or at least a LOT of their buyers. I want to browse the internet, post on Free Republic, watch YouTube videos, listen to music, and run my little business (which uses a software program for the reports I produce and sell). I still have my 2007 "flip phone" and an extra battery for when it dies. I can make and receive phone calls, and even take pictures with it.
Me, and I suspect a lot of other people, do not need the latest gimmicks. Hip I ain't. I will run this computer and its XP right into the ground. Hopefully later rather than sooner.
FRegards,
LH