Well maybe I need a few drinks to really respond to your argument properly, but I'll do my best while sober

I think it's a bug and a coincidence. I was really talking about phones and other embedded devices rather than laptops, but you have a point that it's kinda similar here.

Here's the thing though: Win8 is so different to win7 and vista that Microsoft would be taking a huge risk if they tried to make people switch to it before they got used to the change. Given that people will have to re-learn a whole lot of stuff (or install classic shell) anyway, what's to stop them looking around and buying a macbook air, or installing Ubuntu on their old laptop?

Look, I readily concede that your way is possible, but it just doesn't seem terribly likely to sober me (drunk me could have a different opinion, but I wouldn't listen to him if I were you).
In reply to this comment by zaust:
Hang on a sec - what your saying is old unsupported devices - such as a 4 year old Windows Vista 7 laptop have a best version. So why, JUST NOW, right when win8 is around the corner are the automatic updates which are enabled on every new PC restricting my dad's functionality?

This isn't a case of his installed the latest win8 beta (he has not surprisingly as he was in IT for 30 years - but it's in a separate boot partition and runs all of his usb functions perfectly). This is an update to vista 32 bit drivers which has lessoned his functionally roughly a month before win8 comes out.

Could be a bug, could be a coincidence. Could be microsoft are shaking the tree just enough to make people question if they need the new OS.

Lets take a couple more points of view - you've probably seen the start trek TNG vs special edition videos where the original footage looked WAY worse than what was aired originally. If not maybe your a gamer? Notice how blizzard are preparing "Titan" for launch (new mmo) whilst at the same time releasing a kung-fu panda expansion for wow whilst addressing none of the failings Guild Wars 2 has highlighted.

It pays for companies to make their old products look obsolete whilst retaining their brand loyalty

Sorry for rant - had a few to drink.

Since the update introduced an unwelcome new feature and you had to roll back, you're kinda supporting my point actually Every old unsupported device has one "best" version, and it's not always the newest one.

Microsoft say Oct 26 for Win 8, but you'd have to look at the machine specs to see if an upgrade is possible. The interface changes haven't been welcomed by all, either.

Quite a few people hold back on new windows releases until the teething issues have been ironed out... so win 7 is looking good at this point.
In reply to this comment by zaust:
You say that but I was round at my dads today and he'd had to roll back his Vista laptop to an earlier backup because the latest "updates" meant it no longer had the USB resources to run both his printer and scanner. When's Win 8 out again?

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