CentOS 5 was released in 2007 and had maintenance updates till march this year[0]. Nobody forces gnu/linux users to upgrade. I know of happy CentOS 4 users; at

CentOS 5 was released in 2007 and had maintenance updates till march this year[0]. Nobody forces gnu/linux users to upgrade. I know of happy CentOS 4 users; atleast they have the source to their os. You are only forced to upgrade if you want the latest features and support for security fixes. Microsoft is getting "blame" because it leaves you with binaries and a broken upgrade path. [0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CentOS#End-of-support_schedule https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CentOS#End-of-support_schedule