Look up what "residual" means...

It's still a sound argument. Nobody paid for a lifetime guarantee or support when they purchased these products. Stuff gets old, worn out, obsolete, etc. Suck it up, and stop blaming the OEM because you're too cheap, lazy, or stupid to upgrade.

If the product was not suitable for use when you purchased it, why did you wait until now to complain?

This would force the breakup of what's included in an OS. While some parts become obsolete, others carry forward into future OSs. So, should they be required to release all of those trade secrets? And, for the sake of this discussion, let's please not get into the "all trade secrets are evil", "give them all away" argument.

valuable intellectual property can include trade secrets, and those were likely carried forward into later versions of the OS. You don't throw the baby out with the bathwater.

Reference?.../duck for cover

If you're the only person in your company who knew, you were the only one paying attention. I normally don't follow it myself, but have been aware of this for years.

Regarding the costs, you're correct. But, just like any other equipment that a company buys, things don't last forever, and are depreciated in value over time. I'd be willing to bet that your company did depreciate those computers on their taxes. If your in the U.S., that's over five years, value of your equipment is now considered to be $0. Equipment, including software, shouldn't be expected to last indefinitely.

Yeah, some of us live on planet Earth. Let the rest of us know when your Utopia is up and running.

If your company is in a mission critical business, running unsupported software like this, then someone's head should roll. It's not the products fault, and it's not like there aren't other options. If you want a product to supply the things you're requiring, you shouldn't expect to get it out of a tiny box at Best Buy.

Better way to say it: "The Internet is curing Americas religion". It models religion properly as a mental disease.

Every halfway good crypto is "nearly unbreakable". That is not good enough by a very large margin.

I like this concept.

However, it would probably drive the companies bankrupt.

(Imagine supporting win 3.1, win 98, win me, win nt, win vista, win xp, win 7, and win 8 all at the same time because they share copyrighted code.

Well, I have some residual trust in the good in people. Maybe I am wrong there.

Hehe, and I am decidedly not the person to keep a large, complicated diverse project going and on track. Maybe next life ;-)

I did not claim that this made them fail. I did say that they observed similar tactics used against them, which indicates a that the same attacker may have been at work.