Pshaw, don't tell me not to compare software and hardware - I could've used a thousand examples but I happen to be looking at SNES sprites.
The difference is not that it's "not better" anything.
The similarity is to push a new product. You spent X amount of money to develop an article. You wish to sell said article. You're a fool not to do what's in your best interest, by not rotating other items in your priority list.
You can't blame a company if they chose not to invest more money and time and effort into a program that they are trying to bill as second rate compared to their new program. They spent X amount of money to develop a newer item, they aren't going to lose face by making the difference between their new "first rate" article, and their old crummy second rate - get rid of it so we can make money article. That's just horrible nonsense.
You want me to do software, fine. Here's a made up example pulled from a hat.
Norton comes out with a new antivirus protection program. They spent a whopping large sum to develop, advertise, and produce it. They want to sell it. They want you to have it. Their old version, it's gone. They allow you some grace time so you can get this new program by still supporting the old (kind of like how they continued making SNES games - oops there I go again). Then, they stop it.
Windows 2000 has extended support till July 2010, to coincide with the Windows 2010 (codenamed Blackcomb, and then Vienna or some horribel crap). XP is still considered current. Previous versions like Windows 3.0 - updates? Why would there be? We're "moving on" to "better" things according to all our advertisements.
You can still use previous versions of Windows like Windows XP, like I use. You'll just have to do things slightly differently. Get real protection from the internet and your problems solved until all the great programs become incompatible with XP. Then your just screwed between an ego and a dollar sign.