Originally posted by: soonerproud
It all works on 2003 so there's no backporting to be done.
XP is not 2003 so that is a flawed argument in the first place and XP does not fully support Volume Shadow Copies like Vista and Win 7 does.
The difference is that I can easily upgrade versions of Ubuntu for free so there's no need for them to worry about it in most cases. And I'm not sure about Ubuntu, but there is a repository for Debian specifically for backporting new packages to the stable release because it tends to get old after a while.
So what if you can upgrade Ubuntu for free. Who do you call again to get support? Oh thats right you still have to pay for support or rely on forums or other resources, just like Windows. At least support comes with the cost of Windows either by the OEM that installed it or by Microsoft if you buy retail or enterprise versions.
The cost of Windows covers a lot more than just the software which is something you just keep ignoring.
Good luck getting a average Joe using straight Debian or even upgrading packages on it.