While I believe Microsoft is more than justified in retiring XP, I don't think that's fair either. Many people regard their computer as an appliance. To be tol

While I believe Microsoft is more than justified in retiring XP, I don't think that's fair either. Many people regard their computer as an appliance. To be told that you need to spend several hundred dollars to buy a new computer (or less to buy a new OS and find someone to upgrade you) is hard to swallow. From their perspective, it's working perfectly fine - why should they throw away $400? Does that mean they'll have to do it all over again in a few years? My grandfather was especially perturbed by that idea. I suppose I would be similarly perturbed if someone told me I needed to upgrade or replace my dishwasher even though (as far as I could tell) it was working perfectly fine. (Just to be clear, that's not how I think of it - I am running 8.1 on my old Vista for a reason.)