> Microsoft knew that, so they made sure to be ABI compatible so they could keep updating the OS.

I don't remember it that way. I remember buying motherboards and receiving CDs full of drivers for the many Windows versions. I remember having to scour the internet for drivers and finding a different one for each Windows version. I remember failing to find drivers for new versions of Windows because the manufacturer couldn't care less. I remember incredibly shitty manufacturer applications that took over one minute to display a window on the screen. I even managed to reverse engineer one of those into a free software user space driver.

> I remember buying motherboards and receiving CDs full of drivers for the many Windows versions.

There haven't been "many" Windows versions in the entire existence of Windows. I bet you don't remember getting different drivers for every service pack or security update.

> Microsoft knew that, so they made sure to be ABI compatible so they could keep updating the OS.

That's just not true. A lot of hardware support was stranded by OS version updates, especially pre-Vista and Win7. It's reached a point where Linux deals a lot better w/ some older hardware than any currently-supported Windows version.

A small handful of times over many decades when the driver model changed, not after every update.

There were a lot of drivers who will not work with new windows versions. Due for examples of changes in things expectedv in the inf file or the registry. Installing drivers in windows was a lot of pain.

Ok, but again when you talk about "new windows versions" you're talking about an event that happens very infrequently, and most drivers do continue to work for decades without needing to be updated across multiple major versions. Windows 7 drivers from 11 years ago generally speaking still work in Windows 10 today. Hell, even Vista drivers (14 years ago!) often still work. Contrast that with the Linux kernel where you have to recompile external drivers, what, every few weeks?

A couple of times since 1995, not every year.

Some of that is just getting rid of compatibility code for misbehaving drivers.

Not just hardware but even older Windows applications run way better on WINE than on Windows 10. Microsoft doesn't care about reverse compatibility or long-term support for consumers.

you made my day, now i have to stop trolling and get a job. Do the same ;)

I feel this must explain why every Android device I've owned has felt janky in some way, while with an Apple phone it just seems to work.