The Microsoft Way is that you, the customer, own nothing. You rent things. (The cartoon is from a 1997 issue of Midwest Today.)

When Microsoft decides something is too old for it to bother with, you can't rent it anymore. You're on your own.

Security software vendors like Symantec have long done the same thing. Go to their software "store" and click around a while. You can't really buy anything -- you can only obtain a "subscription."

Well, the rest of the Microsoft ISV world is now falling into line with this. Intuit is dropping all support for older users of its Quicken software and the Washington Post says it's shocked, shocked.

Why are newspapers so often shocked by the obvious?

Now there is an issue here, an important one. But the Post doesn't approach it, as usual.

The issue is that you're not just being forced here to upgrade your software. You're also being pushed to upgrade your hardware, because the system requirements of the new software often assume you have more PC now than you did then.

And I think this is the key issue. Forced hardware upgrades are necessary in order for Microsoft to retain the loyalty of its hardware partners, Dell and H-P. If you can get along with an old set-up (and you can in fact) they're hosed. So by forcing you to get new software (or lose the software's key features, as in the Intuit case) you're eventually sent to the hardware store as well.

Just another reason why the developing world is going to go to Linux, if you ask me. They can't afford forced upgrades.