> I'm posting this from a windows 7 machine. It also works just fine.
It won't if you ever go to upgrade your hardware. It's more than just security concerns, it's an entire industry literally conspiring to make what you own obsolete and force you into their ecosystem.
I'd still be using Win7 myself except several of the applications I use decided that they will no longer support anything older than Win10 for no clear reason. Hell, the laptop I'm typing this on came with Win10 and I spent three whole days getting a custom modified Win7 to install because there aren't sufficient drivers for this hardware. Even when it was working the USB was kinda janky...
=Smidge=
Access to new APIs with new/better/more secure/more performant functionality is a decent reason to leave old OSes behind.
If an App had to support WfW3.11 Win32, Win95, win98, WinMe, WinNT3.x, WinNT4, Win2000, WinXP, WinVista, Win7, Win8.x Win10 and Win11, that would really be a development/testing and security nightmare... Where do we draw the line? Your favourite OS perhaps?
After all, a person perfectly happy with WinXP or WinVista has the same right as you to complain that "several of the applications I use decided that they will no longer support anything older than Win10 for no clear reason." (and actually did, when App support for WinXP was retired).
Where does an App developer draw the line? May I sugest "I stop supporting an App on a certain OS version as soon as the OS Manufacturer stop supporting said OS version"? Seems reasonable to me, and most App vendors do it.
Or perhaps "I keep supporting my App on an OS version, even if the manufacturer stopped supporting it, as long as all the core components of my App still support said OS (See steam in Windows 7 vis a vis chromium)"?
Or perhaps "I'll keep supporting my App on an OS version the manufacturer does not support as long as the work on the app version is already done, for the life of the app version, and drop it as soon as the next version of the App lands (see Firefox LTS 115 on Win7)"
As for the OS Maker, most of them (ajem, apple, ajem) are very clear from day one about support lifecycles and guidelines, having a definite official policy written on their public website . lifetimes vary from 7 to 10 years, sometimes (ubuntu, IBM osZ, SunOS) slightly more.