WHY won't stinking Microsoft create a new service pack for Windows 7?!

Yikes. It sounds like you'd be better off even with Linux than Mac OS for those uses Not sure about it, but I imagine there would be much better support for things like a USB to serial adapter there than under OS X.

Apple shouldn't keep trying to appeal to the pro market. Unless you're doing multimedia editing of some sort, it's just not an ideal platform for business use. Of course, on the other hand it fails for home use when it comes to gaming.. Apple drops the ball repeatedly with this platform, yet it survives.

 

I don't disagree with anything you've said. Rather, I'm just highly annoyed with Microsoft for taking a stance of all but abandoning Windows 7 (the best-loved operating system today) when they rolled out the biggest clunker since Vista -- Windows 8. The cosmetic patches in Win 8.1 didn't endear this hodge-podge OS to the user public, either.

And nearly every week there's another dozen or so updates to Windows 7, and even the list of updates that are added to Windows 8.1 grows weekly, too. You have to wonder what these idiots in Redmond are thinking, if they're thinking at all.... But, oh, the beta for Windows 9 will be out in six months, and it will go on sale in April 2015. Be still, my heart!

 

They have not "abandoned" it. In fact if they had, you would not have an increasingly growing number of software patches to install.

And you have to realize, Windows 7 is 5 years old. And within a few years, there will likely be an SP2 for it. Just like SP3 for XP.

SP3 was really the "death knell" for XP. In that they wrapped up everything they had done for the OS, and after that it was really only security patches.

And that is what the majority of updates are, security patches. And they have to be updated regularly, because remember that the majority of computer users are really unknowledgeable. They could not reach a DOS prompt if their lives depended on it, and just plug into their modem and away they go. This is the user that Windows has to protect, those who could not tell the difference between a switch and a hub, and think that a text interface is obsolete.

Windows is the #1 target simply because it is the largest group of users. Mac is safe largely because of it's relative anonymity in the marketplace. And Linux is safe mostly because there are so many different versions and flavors and kernels floating around that each one requires something else to exploit.

But if anybody thinks Linus is "safe", I invite them to chat with some I know that run Apache Servers. They are constantly updating their OS, even changing their OS as one unfixable exploit is found so they move to a completely different version of Linux.

But every software company largely "abandons" those that use older versions. Microsoft is nothing special here. When was the last time you heard of a large update for Tiger or Leopard? Should Firaxis still be doing a lot of work on Civilization III, even though we are all using Civilization V? I don't see Rockstar rereleasing more upgrades for GTA3, which is considered by many to be the best of the series.

But I just can't understand what you are trying to say. First you complain about the ever increasing number of updates and patches, then you turn right around and claim it has been "abandoned". Sorry, it is impossible to be both at once. If you want to see "abandoned", go look at Win2K, or XP. That is what "abandoned" looks like.

Oh, and expect updates for Vista-7-8 to continue for a long time. Because just like the NT4-Win2K-XP series, Vista-7-8 all share the same code base. They use the same drivers, the lower level programming is almost exactly the same for all of them. If an update works on 8, odds are it works on 7 and Vista as well (and this is in both directions).

 

I certainly agree that Vista and 7 share the same code base. Indeed, Vista with SP2 is almost indistinguishable from Windows 7. When I said that Win7 was "abandoned" I meant that MS has refused to release an SP2 for it, and has stated flatly that there won't be one: http://www.techspot.com/news/50599-microsoft-wont-release-service-pack-2-for-windows-7.html This is obtuse and unwarranted, given that there are nearly 200 updates for Win7. The most onerous ones are the .NET updates, which are gigantic, and nested. It's like those nested Russian dolls -- you open one, then go through all the bull**** of unpacking the .NET updates, and configuring them, and installing them. And then? After you do all the obligatory re-boots (again and agina), you run Windows Updates again and there they are -- about 20 more of the damn things. And after you repeat the procedure for them, you'll have more, and, likely, even more. MS has not pulled this kind of neglectful crap on us before, and I'm convinced that they do this now to make Windows 7 as big a pain in the ass as possible in an attempt to herd everybody over to Win8 (and Win8.1).

Got a hot news item for the braintrust in Redmond -- IT AIN'T WORKING, BOYS! And when you guys roll out Win9 it had BETTER be a PC-oriented operating system, and not another one of these half-assed "all-things-to-all-people" "integrated experiences". People who enjoy pawing at their tabs and smartphones all day and all of the night aren't going to be dumping the millions of dollars you hope for at the Microsoft "Store". Create an operating system for US, and we will make you rich!