I don't use Linux, but my department chair does, on his desktop. It ain't impossible. It ain't even rocket science.
Maybe I'll set up a Linux machine one of these days, just for the fun of the experiment.
One of the things I really don't like about MicroSoft is that they are cutting off support for older OSs. This is known as "holding a gun to the end user's head".
Everybody cuts support for older OSs. It's a fact of life. If a company offered "infinite support", they'd have to sell the product at a prohibitive price. But let's shed some daylight on your statement.
I've been using Windows2000-Pro, with free security patch support, for 3.5 years. Microsoft has announced that security patch support for Win2000 will end ~2007. That's 7 years of security patch support.
In contrast, RedHat announced that their security patch support for any distribution will end 12 months after release.
As is usually the case, you get what you pay for.