James is right, you're comparing apples to oranges. The Microsoft customer we are addressing are developers, someone who has invested a considerable sum into a piece of software, an asset that then has considerable value. When MS changes course the value of that asset is affected,sometimes tremendously and that customer is hurt. OTOH a piece of hardware like video player, or a game console has no comparable value to a customer, nothing anywhere near what a software application does to a developer or company who "rolls their own". Furthermore, there is little expense required to "retrain" for another video player, automobile, and so forth.

You mention IBM, a wise company, on whose systems you can still run applications written in '74 COBOL, PL/1, RPG-II, BAL, and more, languages dating back decades. This protects the investment their customers have in their software. MS could learn something from IBM.

>Then you're in the wrong business. Sorry, but if you're in tech, you should be expecting to have to update your skills every few years. It's not the fault of MS or Oracle or Google or IBM. That's just the nature of the industry. Here's a book for you http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/who-moved-my-cheese-spencer-johnson/1100490904?ean=9780399144462&itm=1&usri=who+moved+my+cheese
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>>Come on Craig. There is a big difference. If you buy a product and it goes away then you buy something else. More than likely you got the value out of it. When a lot of time is invested learning a language and it goes away then that is time lost that is hard to replace.