Fascinating. This is another way for them to send a clear message to the hundreds of millions of xp users out there who looked at 7 and rejected it: "We don't care about you, use the latest Chrome if you must".
And then they keep wondering why ie's market share is dropping like a rock.
Considering the amount of people who whinge incessantly about the latest and greatest browser not being used, why would they then whinge that the latest operating system isn't?
At the risk of engaging someone who clearly has an axe to grind, the barrier to upgrading a browser is hardly comparable to upgrading an operating system.
For a decent-sized constituency, the barrier is exactly the same: they haven't got admin rights, and the IT department installed/mandates the version they have.
And for another too: the large proportion of people who have no idea what either an OS or a browser is.
It's a mistake to imagine that everyone (and perhaps even a majority) either understands or has control of their computing.
I agree with that point, but I think that the people who use the latest and greatest browser tend to upgrade their computers and operating systems regularly.
The rest don't know or care.
As technology experts on here, we tend to forget that the layperson doesn't generally know or care.
The people you hear 'whinging' are people trying to build websites without having to add 50-100% to their dev time fixing IE-specific problems. Or unable to use features that other browsers have supported for years because half their target market is on a browser without any form of auto-update and a glacial release cycle.
I personally don't give a monkey's spleen what OS people run because the platform I am developing for is the web browser.
The problem isn't always a lack of IE8. Government agencies often have a forced group policy that puts IE8 into "compatibility mode" so it's effectively IE7... which is only slightly better than IE6.
And then they keep wondering why ie's market share is dropping like a rock.