Old news... (Score 0)

• And that brings us to my point: making software compatible with older hardware shouldn't be a goal in and of itself. Why? One need only to venture over to Pricewatch to see that an AMD 1800+ mobo/CPU combo sells for under $300. Systems faster than what anyone could ever need are commodities now.

While this is true in most western countries, it is absolutely wrong in many regions of the world.
The CS school I've been in has many students organizations. One of them, EFREI Aide Humanitaire (french link, use the fish) helps schools in Africa to get CS related stuff, by collecting "old" mobos, towers, harddisks, and so on.
What's old for us is quite new for them. Hey, the whole "desktop computer" thingy is quite new (it's only 25 years old) ! One may argue that old hardware may run old software well, so why don't they use linux 1.x ? I would answer I don't see the reason why they should use buggy software when bugs have been corrected for years. Linux is a modern OS these people can use.
I agree that making backward compatible software should not be a goal. Microsoft shows us what it can lead to. I would instead say it should be a motivation. Do not cut compatibility where it's not necessary, and if you do, try to provide a way for other developers to easily make it compatible.
Julien