Here is another shocker: Windows 8 – currently in development and expected to launch this October – will run on the same hardware as Windows 7.

That’s a 2012 OS technically capable of running on 12-year-old hardware. Compare that to Mac OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion (also in development and due for launch in Summer 2012) that will not run on 5-year-old hardware.

I’m normally pretty intolerant of people who expect Apple to support their Performa 6400, but I noticed this difference when I installed Windows 8 on my Core Solo Mac Mini, a machine I couldn’t install Lion on.

Of course, refusing to move on from this stuff is part of why Microsoft is like a dinosaur in a tar pit. There is a cost to it, whether you notice it or not.