MicrosoftFirst of all, RayRosenMSFT , this situation has nothing to do with Apple, having ~10 years of OS support is just an "industry standard" practice.
Second of all, is there any internal (or external) evidence to suggest that Windows 11 is any more "secure" than Windows 10 is (besides marketing ploys)? As far as I can tell, most of the security features built into Windows 11 itself (not internal hardware or UEFI security features) are imported from Windows 10.
On top of that, if Microsoft isn't offering any official upgrade paths for users stuck on Windows 10 and can't upgrade to Windows 11 to stay "secure" (not by using any unofficial workarounds), then what does that mean for consumers? For nearly all previous versions of Windows, there were few artificial upgrade or installation restrictions (besides RAM and certain CPU extension requirements). Simply saying "buy a new PC to stay 'secure'" is not tangible statement from a consumer perspective and even from an enterprise perspective if their PC(s) are still fully and functional and perfectly usable for most needed tasks.
I know hardware and software alike cannot be supported forever (as Ray mentioned), but given the circumstances with Windows 11's installation blocks and having no ability to extend security updates beyond the EOS date besides paying a premium for LTSC, this situation will fail for organizations and consumers alike, and could have lasting consequences if no one at Microsoft realizes how big the situation will be if few people upgrade to Windows 11 (or Windows 12) or buy new PC's by 2025.
