Re: Sorry, I've forgotten, why do I want this again?
Probably the answer is - because Microsoft will stop selling 8, pull support for the others, and therefore generally shunt us into it regardless of us wanting it or not. I'm just hoping for a better answer...
You already had the answer to that much. Microsoft is using its "customers" as a free testing site - this much can be seen where some parts of the system are still incomplete and the rest of it is still unstable, while the carrot of a "free" version is being dangled in front of the noses of those who object to paying the best part of £200 for a licence for something that, at one time, was an inclusive part of the computer. The stick in all this? That could be considered to be the cut off date next year.
I viewed a video a few days back made by somebody that used to work at Microsoft and the view he had of the company at that point confirmed a lot of my views about what the company has turned into. I've always had my doubts about Microsoft but I never totally wrote them off since they did come up with the occasional system that I liked. Windows 2000 was a good example, as was Windows 7.
The problem is that Microsoft seem to have developed the same world view as a number of my own previous employers. Damn the quality, just do what needs to be done to boost the bottom line. Because of that, the chances of a "better answer" emerging is hardly likely to happen unless a serious change of that world view occurs. That's unlikely to happen unless the company effectively reinvents itself which, as you can imagine, is extremely expensive to do and because of the current world view is unlikely to happen unless W10 is a massive failure. The problem with that is that W10 is being taken up by too many people who see the "free t-shirt" banner and act accordingly.