You honestly can't understand the reason for switching from CE to NT? You honestly expect them to abandon NT for Windows Phone 9?

Even still, it's not like Windows Phone 7 users are just up and fucked, they're still receiving updates (like WP7.8). That's good for people who bought into the platform less than two years before WP8 came out; they're not left in the cold. Their apps still work, they can still install many of the new apps coming out, and when they do upgrade (almost all of) their already-purchased apps still work. It's not that Microsoft made a hard cut off and left WP7 users for dead, they're just not providing an OS upgrade from WP7 to WP8. Everything else still works like an incremental upgrade.

Windows Phone 7 still works, it's still being updated, and there are still just as many apps being released. And when you get a new phone with WP8, it will work just like WP7 did, and your apps carry over. There's no need to throw a tantrum; no one has been abandoned.

This is exactly what I'm talking about: people laugh at the platform with uneducated opinions they tout as fact and spread their "facts" to other people. It ends up being a game of telephone/Chinese whispers where the truth gets more distorted the more its repeated. If you'd really like to like Windows Phone as you say, as a developer or as a user, you might want to think about what you're saying about it first. That app you wrote in 2010 still runs on WP8, and the app you wrote in 2013 works just fine on a WP7 launch device.

You misunderstand me. I understand why they did it. I don't care. I'm a consumer here, not a developer, and I want to be the guy who has a phone with an upgrade path. If I can't get updates to my phone for at least a couple years--and save the "but but WP7.8," I do define "updates" as latest-and-greatest, and that's WP8--I consider it abandonment. Samsung does it. LG does it. HTC does it. Google's Nexus devices don't, and neither does Apple, and that's why they're on my radar and the others are not. WP7.8 is a joke for PR purposes--they are leaving people out in the cold because they can't get WP8. That's the important upgrade. Not WP7.8. And people who got on board with Windows Phone, the early adopters who Microsoft should be thanking their lucky stars doesn't consider them a joke (or didn't, maybe they do now!), are the ones getting burned. That's unacceptable behavior and I won't reward it with my money.

I have no assurances, none whatsoever, that WP9 won't leave me with an un-upgradeable doorstop even if there isn't a kernel transition. They've showed that they'll be assholes even to their early adopters, so why wouldn't they be an asshole to me? And Microsoft's word is dirt to me, so I don't even believe them if they say it's the case. If they release WP9 and WP10 without fucking over their customers, I will consider them no longer radioactive. Until then, I refuse to be make P.T. Barnum more correct.

(Microsoft's penchant for abandoning technology is also why I won't write code for Microsoft platforms anymore except for ports of my C++ games because that's still where a worthwhile percentage of the market is and I can't not target it. Which sucks, because I really like C#, but they made that bed, not me.)

Again, I don't understand why you're repeating your "truths". You're asking for updates. You got one. How is anyone getting burned?

Again I'm going to repeat: Software from WP7 works on WP8. A majority of software from WP8 will work on WP7. What are you missing out on by not getting WP8? A couple features only made possible by the new hardware released with WP8. Let's go with your Apple example: if you bought an iPhone 4 right before the release of the iPhone 4S, yeah, you "got" the update to the latest software version, for certain definitions of "got". What didn't you get? The biggest part of the update, basically the whole reason for the new phone: Siri. Without Siri, you've got a minor software update to last generation's phone.

So Microsoft is calling a spade a spade, where Apple is hiding behind a bigger version number. Apple leaves out big features from their software upgrades for users on last year's phone, but it's okay because the version number is one higher? That's not leaving their users out in the cold? You don't feel burned for not getting Siri on your iPhone 4? Because on both iOS and Windows Phone, you're getting updates for an old phone, and on both iOS and Windows Phone you're only getting the parts of the update your phone will support. Whether you buy that the phone support is the issue or not, that's how it goes. The only difference is the major version number, and if they're lying to you about it or not.

I guess I don't understand how it's acceptable for Apple to fuck you over and lie to you about it, but not for Microsoft to just release an update for an old phone.

WP7.8 is not the update that I demand for me to consider Microsoft credible. Simple as that. You can continue railing fanboyishly if you want, but it doesn't impress. I expect to get the newest--and that's not a point release for a dead OS, that's the new OS--for at least two years after I buy a phone. Don't bother quibbling about this: it is simply not up for discussion and you are wasting your time trying to claim that I am wrong for it.

Apple restricts some features from OS updates in ways I do not appreciate, sure. And it was a factor in me going to Google's Nexus device line. But it was a small factor because, in practice, Apple doing so was not a significant issue--I didn't care about Siri and Apple's messaging toward third-party development meant that I still got third-party applications that interested me that could run on my iPhone 4. Microsoft is not encouraging people to develop for WP7. It is a second-class citizen at best because WP8 is out, it is the new hotness, and no, WP7 loyalists, you can't have it. And there is nothing to indicate that they won't do the same for WP9. Or WP10. So when they get a couple of iterations under their belts where they have treated the customer in a way I am willing to pay money for, I will consider them.

Of course, they'll in all likelihood be pretty much dead in the water by then and it'll all be moot.

I'm not trying to impress you, I'm trying to make you (and anyone else reading who might trust you) see how ridiculous you are sounding. If Microsoft gave you what is included in 7.8 but called it 8, you would be happy. That's what you're saying. No arguments, that's literally what you're saying.

What you want is for Microsoft to lie to you just like Apple does. And until they do, you won't consider them credible.

No. If Microsoft came out with a single OS upgrade that they wanted developers to target, and put that on WP7 phones, then I would consider that reasonable. They are not. They are giving a point release to their long-time supporters while telling everyone else that WP7 is dead and to write code for the new hotness. That's unacceptable for phones that could be less than six months old. It's simply unacceptable.

Like I said, WP apps can be made using the same SDK. Apps can be made today that run on WP8 will run fine even on WP7.0 and vice versa. The only apps that won't run on WP7 are apps that use features that only WP8 can support (oh snap other platforms do this too). You know what platform they want developers to target? Windows Phone. I don't think they care which version. Hell, make your app for WP7 because it will still work on WP8. When I upgraded my phone, I didn't have to re-buy or do without any of my old apps. I booted the phone and redownloaded everything just like it was, with the same WP7 apps. Like I keep saying, they're the same. You're not even submitting to a different app store. WP7 apps continue to pour into the marketplace just like they were, and can still be bought and installed on WP7.

Again, what I'm reading from your posts is that you want WP7.8 to be called WP8. And until Microsoft starts to lie to you, you won't trust them. You've proven my point quite well, people will find the tiniest little things to bitch about when it comes to Microsoft. If you don't want to buy into the phone then don't, but stop telling your "truths" to other people who might. Please try to understand how ridiculous you're being.

I don't make apps. I buy them. My ability to buy them is predicated on other people writing them to target WP7. Microsoft's messaging excludes WP7. I am well aware that you can target WP7 and WP8 simultaneously; I am also aware that Microsoft doesn't really give a shit if anyone actually does and that it is an absolutely insane proposition to expect greenfield development to actually target WP7 today--because why would it? I sure wouldn't, because the WP7 market is tiny! But it's Microsoft's job to take care of its early adopters who trusted them, and their messaging indicates no desire to really do that. OS releases and app releases are two different things, and Microsoft is falling down on the latter in a way that means I will simply not go there.

I want my phone to have the literal newest-and-best for at least two years and I don't want the platform setting a direction in which I am not explicitly included as a first-class citizen. Which Microsoft isn't doing. And, sure, you're right that Apple doesn't do that either! Great! I use my Android phones as daily drivers and the Nexus devices do exactly that. Why should anyone do differently?