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).
See Number Four.
Of course the hardware and software people are “in cahoots” ;the endless race for faster computers and more memory,etc. etc. etc. no doubt meets the lusts of gamers ,video porn, and scientific cimulations but for the vast majority of users ,we won’t come close to needing or using those capabilities any more than most people need a Ferrari for the daily commute.
I note that big business is slow to jump on the newest OS;I think Win95 was out for 2 years before being adopted at P&G, and my current workplace is XP.In many businesses the software absolutely MUST work correctly because a “glitch” could actually cause major economic loss or even loss of life (chemical flow controls,etc.)