I really doubt an average Joe would buy a new computer once the old OS goes end-of-life. Joe would just continue using an EOL system and hope everything is alright.
I’m sure average Joe doesn’t even know what EOL means, or knows when it happens. :)
Microsoft will let him know in no uncertain terms in order to convince him to pay them again. He will know.
Having worked in tech fields, legacy devices as old as 20 years can pop up occasionally, functioning or not. Once was told a story where this tech was hired to fix a highschool bell system and the whole thing was running on windows 98. This took place in 2015 or so
I work in a field that is considered by many high tech. I have personally seen a system in use today that duel boots windows 2000 and windows 98.
The product it’s used by is old generations and the system does not have any network access but still must be supported by government regulation for several more years…
Yeah there’s a lot of MRI machines out there where the brains are running windows 98
Few years ago there was a story in a local paper about building automation systems running on Commadore 64 and still doing fine. Build by some company in the 80’s. They weren’t online, so no security issues.
Tried to find the article online but no luck. It would have been in local language anyway.
The company I work for has no control over the air conditioning in one of our facilities because it’s automated and running on a computer system from the 80’s. No one knows how it works.