Feeling cheated
I understand what you are saying. I agree that it does suck when you have a piece of hardware which the vendor has decided to stop supporting, and then you find that you can no longer use your hardware with newer software because of the lack of drivers, etc. I have seen this happen with scanners and printers, as well as other devices. And it's not just Windows upgrades that can cause problems. In the past, I have seen upgrades to "photo shop" type programs leave people unable to use an old scanner or printer. I have seen upgrades to video editing software leave people unable to use an old, no longer supported video capture card. And, I can definitely see this as a reason to put off upgrading software. However, there is nothing to prevent you from continuing to use your old computer, with your old version of software, to run your unsupported hardware. As I said before, it's not like Microsoft will pull the plug on your XP machine or otherwise force you into upgrading Windows, if upgrading does not suit you.
I can certainly understand that many people have many reasons for not wanting to upgrade. I have one old computer running XP in my basement. All I use it for anymore is as a "juke box" to play music while I exercise. I'm not going to spend money to upgrade that computer, or upgrade any of the software, as it works perfectly fine for what I use it for. At the same time, however, I am not bothered by the fact that Vista and Windows 7 have been released, and Windows 8 is on the horizon. I do not feel that I am being compelled to upgrade that computer in any way.
Rick
