Microsoft supports legacy technologies and hardware platforms a lot longer by keeping their driver architectures intact a lot longer, by offering extended support lifecycles on older OSes, etc..
It's not fair to compare an operating system to an entire product. If Microsoft made a computer, hardware and software, and supported it fully for seven to eight years, that would fairly impressive. However, maintaining a driver architecture as evidence of their intent to support their product longer is probably also invalid. Microsoft is a victim of their own success, and as such, was (perhaps, we'll see in Windows 8 the real version) incapable of making great changes in direction without disturbing their product offering: massive compatibility with everything. They also leverage this position by causing the hardware manufacturers to conform.
And what happens when your TangZang Micro. Modem doesn't work? TangZang Micro sucks right? They make ****** hardware and software right? Not Microsoft's fault. If you bought SuperPlatinum Cisco it would work great.
And lets dive a little deeper into Windows and see just what you get for these seven years of mainstream Windows XP support. According to Microsoft's website, they will keep their documentation up to date including the knowledge base, I get security updates, hotfixes, and I can request features. However, I'm also entitled to PAY THEM for support. Oh sure, I'm entitled to 90 days of "free" support IF I buy the software in a retail box that costs around $150 more than an OEM kit and $300 more than the one that came with the prebuilt computer I purchased.
So, essentially, if you still want to compare operating systems to total consumer products, Microsoft offers a worse version of AppleCare that lasts 90 days instead of a full year. Unless you want to pay of course. (oh, and it costs $300 to upgrade my 3 year old PC, not FREE as with the iPhone 3GS)
HP is just amazing at it. They are still supporting, actively, 24/7, 10 year old hardware I have, running a 12 year old OS. I get updates, I get phone support, etc..
Now, Apple is a consumer company, whereas all the other players pretty much have a hand in enterprise. Is it a fair comparison ? No.
This isn't just unfair, it's stupid. This is like saying jets have way better legacy support than cars. Yeah, they have way better "legacy support" cause you pay engineers and mechanics millions of dollars a year to keep them running for as long as possible. Sure, those Engineers have access to Boeing technical documents, training, security updates, etc. But you bet your ass the airlines PAY for that support. Even if I had to pay Apple some large fraction of the cost of my device every year to be able to use the Genius Bar or phone support, this still doesn't make any sense on topic cause what you'd essentially be doing is calling HP and bitching that their old HP-UX server doesn't support some new feature like native multipathing that came out last year. This is like complaining that your 737's TVs are old tube TVs running on VHS instead of flatscreens on DVD. That isn't
support. Is something wrong
with what we sold you? NO? Then your options are A) don't call me or B) pay me more money to care.
But let's no pretend "Apple supports older hardware longer than their competitors", please. Let's keep it to the facts, understand the facts, and know why it is like it is. This isn't a blow against Apple, quite the contrary, it shows their great understanding of their market segment, the consumer market.
This is just sad you mentioning Microsoft of all companies hot the heels of their announcements that
it is likely that NO current Windows 7.5 phone will even be upgradable to Windows 8 and
Upgrade to Windows 7.5 or GET OFF MY MARKET.
Is it still magical?
