This is probably a path dependent outcome from the process that brought us the the "personal computing" era. It really kicked into gear and achieved ubiquity wi

This is probably a path dependent outcome from the process that brought us the the "personal computing" era. It really kicked into gear and achieved ubiquity with Microsoft selling both the main operating system AND the "standard" productivity software suite that was the primary reason people owned computers. MS made their money back then selling upgrades to Microsoft Office that broke backwards compatibility. Part of the strategy was owning the environment so they could work in some amount of engineered obsolescence into the software lifecycle. Of course, because Microsoft was a multi-headed chimera, Windows itself bent over backwards to keep everything not Office chugging along forever.