Totally cromulent position if it works for you and you can still get hardware that runs it, AND you can keep it offline? No security updates is kind of a big deal.
I don't know. Is it? This is a legit question, even though the tone might come across as sarcastic. But what exactly is the concern?
I guess I don't buy the "outdated operating system will be hijacked" argument, for not having received its security updates and simply being plugged in.
Let's say you have a decent NAT router that doesn't allow inbound traffic. And let's say that you run a reasonably secure web browser and that's pretty much the sum total of your internet traffic. And let's say you're smart and don't download shareware, screensavers, and the like, only trusted applications from reputable vendors. And let's also suggest that you're not using things like Outlook or other vectors for undesirable inbound junk.
What exactly is the threat model here? An operating system isn't going to get hacked over thin air. I don't see the concern, particularly if you are a savvy computer user. I wouldn't want to run grandma on this setup, but still, I feel reasonably safe with this model.
It's the same reason why I don't advocate or believe in running antivirus software. It's just bloatware and introduces an array of vulnerabilities to my computer (c.f. CrowdStrike or any AV vendor hacks).
Sometimes people really do build treadmills to be more exhausting and costly than you could have sensibly imagined :\
I never did like a treadmill so I always liked to keep PCs having the original Windows version that they were built for, and when a new version came out I would eventually install that to a different partition and go forward from there with the traditional built-in multibooting approach.
I've even still got two XP machines running Windows 11 that can also boot to 10 or 8 or 7 at a moment's notice, and I've got plenty of drive space to spare.
I like Windows 7 for its native ability to play DVDs like you don't get with newer Windows, so I'm always going to want one partition for W7 on every PC that actually still has a DVD player. With W7 I'm just doing office work or watching DVDs, not even doing vintage games.
Windows 11 really is continuing to increase its failure rate on millions more perfectly working hardware items with each revision, in what can only be recognized as a rehash of the old anti-recycling approach. Tonnes of unnecessary e-waste just in the last year. Is it really worth it just to get an incremental bump for a software business which could otherwise be handled as one of the most environmentally responsible companies if they really tried?
There's supposed to be a net advantage to more digital communication and cutting down less trees for paperwork. I don't know how that includes more 18-wheelers full of perfectly operational electronics being scrapped all the time just because "support" was dropped in order to sell something shiny and new. I know, you've really got to pull out all the stops when the shiny and new is not really what people want as much, and one tactic is to put up hurdles to what people actually want. And you need to make money doing it, and once that pays off numerically, the more you keep people from what they really want, the more it pays off and it can be habit forming and difficult to quit.
I'm not one to mindlessly stay connected to the internet at all times, and never allow Windows to connect except one of the fully-updated partitions, but if the trend I see continues it's only going to get easier for Linux to gain ground in the office simply by dropping the ball when it could have been carried so much further.
Kind of a stern warning that some of the major bastions of enterprise value, such as backward compatibility, may be crumbling faster than realized and it may be later than you think already.
Was it? I remember people saying the same about 2000 and XP. I don't really know, haven't really admined windows since 98 or used it since XP
Will people be saying the same about windows 10 in 10 years time?
But XP was a good Windows.
I don't think it's true that "$current_version - 4 is always the best version in people's mind!". It's very clear to me which Windows versions were good and which were crap.
Windows 10 LTSC became the new Windows 7, after Win7 inherited the Windows XP crown.