"Windows XP was so successful, so widespread, that the
desire of most customers would be to keep that version around for a
much longer time, with updates and security patches as needed, but
no radical new version to install. No forced upgrades.
"The irony of course is that this is exactly what most modern
Linux distributions provide. Yes, they churn new releases out every
six months, a change rate much faster than that of Windows. But
unlike Windows this is a treadmill where the customer has their
hand on the speed control, not the vendor."