So NV is dropping support for Fermi in 2016? They still sell re-badged Fermi low-end cards, new at retail, for crying out loud!
I can see them dropping support for pre-Fermi, but I'm pissed at them if they're dropping Fermi support. (I have a GT430 LP card in a rig.)
Think of it this way - the low-end market is disappearing. More powerful IGPs are gobbling them up. So AMD and NV aren't releasing new silicon at the real low end.
Pretty soon, there WILL BE NO SUPPORTED LOW-END discrete for customers. So those of us with older IGPs, that wanted something better, like a low-end discrete (esp. low-profile), will be screwed. NV (and AMD) won't release new products for that market sector, and then they drop support for existing products in that market segment. Leaving their customers in limbo, forced to go back to their slower (but supported!) IGPs, losing AMD and NV market share.
Microsoft gets the driver code, and provides support. Gaming performance often suffers, plus config issues like in this thread can pop up (use DP or DVI over HDMI).
It's not really that big of a deal, unless you're glued to the control panel programs. If you are, buy newer hardware, which helps pay for continued support and development.
The lack of low end cards isn't a big problem. IGPs do 2-3 displays fine. With higher res, and more day to day GPU uses, $100-200 cards are already worthy buying for users of various productivity applications. If you're dealing with older hardware, avoid HDMI (that goes for Geforces, too, BTW, since older ones won't do the full color range on many displays), and Windows will behave just fine.
Whether relying on a 9600GS, GTX 260, HD 2400, or HD 4870, there comes a time when it becomes legacy hardware. It can still be used, but without some options currently-supported products have.