Re:clearly (Score 1)

I don't think that Microsoft so much forces people to upgrade their systems, but they do tend to only release security upgrades for their lastest software products. Take IE for example, when they release IE7 it is only slated to work with XPSP2. If they are going to finally fix the hole in IE, then it should at least be avalible to 2K. If it is not then in my mind this is a tactic to force people to upgrade, or risk having their machine attacked. Being they are just getting around to fixing a hole which has been known about for some time. You are right they suport thier old OS's for a significant amount of time, but they only fix major issues in their lastest software products.
Yvon