Relinquish copyright on the product and the problem is solved. Release the source and there is no problem.

Well, then don't release a "new" system every other year. There is no reason we all couldn't still be on Windows 3.11.7000, except MS renamed it and sold it again and again and again.

The problem is a bit more complex than that. Microsoft has not really been all that informative about their end-of-life policy for their operations systems, and it is certainly nowhere to be found in the EULA or the contracts they happily signed for $$$ with the companies, that are now in a pickle because of it.

Further, Microsoft can support Windows XP, they just want more $$$ to do it (so, if they can do it for one company, and the goods they're selling are infinite, why can't they for all the rest?). If they offered a path to upgrade that didn't cost an arm and a leg, they wouldn't see this kind of lingering on XP that they do. If they spent a little more time streamlining their upgrade process and provided proper support for older binaries, maybe. Try to run a Win16 binary on Windows Vista+ and see what happens - hell, even binaries officially supposed to run under Windows 8 won't. Not every company has a bottomless budget for IT and development to remake their critical software, and Microsoft has until now seemed completely oblivious to that.

Lots of private customers are still lingering on XP too, why wouldn't they? It came pre-installed. It works. Its familiar. It won't get upgraded until the hardware dies. So, Microsoft, live with the consequences of your greed and offer free upgrades, it's not going to hurt the bottom line - hell, it might even prop up those dismal sales figures for Win8.

Or do the right thing and release XP as open source.

Of course you blithering idiot, why do you think we have all this bloat lying around, if not for your protection?

Some of us are capable of writing anything we need, we just have better things to do than re-invent wheels all the time. Grow up.

Sounds like a great user experience right there. Hmm, I just updated, maybe this app will work, maybe it won't?

This new compiler actually links the dependent parts of the .Net framework into your native code, to produce a stand alone executable.

I'm not your Google bitch, so you can figure out where that quote came from on your own yeah?

This is actually fucking awesome. They've got native compilation of Win32/64 desktop and server apps on the road-map. You're right, nobody cares about the Windows Store, which is why they targeted those apps first (you know, developers, developers, developers and all that shit).

The FAQ clearly states that they're planning to propagate this feature to all .Net apps.

I'm guessing that means .Net 4.5+ apps, which in turn means Windows 8+. So here's for hoping that Windows 9 is not gonna suck so much donkey ball, that we can actually expect to be able to upgrade 7 -> 9 without relinquishing part of our soul to the UX demon-child they hired to "improve the user experience".

NGEN just caches the JIT output of an assembly, it does not produce a native executable.

Well, to be fair, most of the passwords that exist are all variants of 12345. Also, several and very many is not infinite. The amount of work put into the Internet might be quite large, but it is still finite.

There is nothing to suggest that an infinite amount of monkeys wont produce an infinite amount of "a"s. Adding more monkeys could produce more "a"s.

Hook the keyboards up in parallel and combine all the inputs to produce infinite outputs and you get instant monkey cracking. Thought now you're stuck with infinite monkeys with nothing to do.

I don't see the lack of a treatment as an argument for not knowing, but I do get why some might not wish to know in that instance. My problem is with the general sentiment that it is ok to stick your head in the sand. The problem does not go away by doing that. And in the case I have a terminal incurable illness, I'd like to know so that I can make the most of my time left, and make sure that the people closest to me won't suffer needlessly because of my ignorance.

Because the choice is not always yours alone. What about your wife? Should she have to deal with the consequences of your head-in-the-sand approach when you develop Alzheimer's? When the time could have been used to set her up properly, it was instead used dicking about and suddenly you're all out of choices, and so is she.

Not knowing is akin to not opening that envelope from the bank you know contains your next mortgage payment reminder. It's not going to go away just because you put your head in the sand. It is a proven fact that early diagnosis significantly improves the chances of being cured or having comfortable life.

I doubt anyone is going to force you to know your faulty DNA, but opting out of knowing if given the choice is just stupid, and potentially very expensive - because you will change your mind on having that treatment once the symptoms appear, which might very well be too late.