The problem is that with Windows 11, Microsoft is trying to force people to throw out a lot of perfectly good hardware. I am not sure how well this is going to work out for them. There are numerous workarounds that people will use. Any equipment that doesn't meet Windows 11’s minimum specs has already lost a lot of its value on sites such as eBay.
Many people will not throw out perfectly good hardware, but most will not buy additional hardware that now does not have a legitimate upgrade path. So, there is demand for newer computers whether people really need them or not.
I was at a social event yesterday and my longtime friend who is well into his 80s was telling me about the new computer that he just purchased. He is not very computer savvy, but he was rattling off Microsoft's selling points for Windows 11 and Office 365. This is someone who had no compelling need to upgrade his 5-year-old desktop; it was new enough that it would already have run Windows 11.
Then he showed me his 5-year-old Subaru that he just paid $35,000 for. This is someone who is constantly whining about his financial situation. My mother taught me that it is best to keep your mouth shut if you have nothing positive to say to someone, so I just congratulated him on his new computer and newish car.
I do not feel as constrained here.
I bought used ebay laptop and desktop in year 2000. My minimum specs were Intel 8th gen cpu. Because we all knew that 8th gen on up are all upgradable to windows 11.
There are zillions of 8th gen or better computers on ebay. 8th gen pushes win 10 and 11 through easily. They will work with windows 12 too except for the AI features that will be in there. Windows 12 will be very AI oriented in realty and for hyped PR purposes....
Windows 12 AI will mesh very well with PCs that you buy next year onward that will have AI chips on motherboard and Intel AMD chips that do AI too.
There will probably be USB connected AI accelerators about the size of NVidias Jetson that will do AI better than Apple M4 chips. Out in a year or two. I looked into this on Grok3.
Apples M chips are about to get spanked by pedestrian intel amd cpus.... when you combine them with a USB AI accelerator box with superior AI gpus going for $500 and then quickly down to $200