I guess this particular problem might get better in the future. Microsoft had a monopolist strategy, so it was in their interest to e.g. make those monopolist

I guess this particular problem might get better in the future. Microsoft had a monopolist strategy, so it was in their interest to e.g. make those monopolist products hard to interface with other companies' alternative software. This means the APIs had to be complex with subtle bugs, so e.g. something that could run Windows applications couldn't easily be cloned -- and, as you note, periodic replacements are also needed. Since the monopolist strategy isn't that productive anymore for MS, the pump-and-dump phenomenon ought to get better... Edit: Also note that over complex functionality that is regularly thrown away, so developers' investments are lost, is lowering our collective life quality. I don't use MS products anymore. Maybe when/if they need to compete without monopolist strategies...