From reader SC:
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OPTIONS!!

I feel sincerely sad and sorry for those of you who feel you are beholden to Microsoft....come on!....you may have older hardware, but there are OPTIONS!:

http://distrowatch.com/

I currently use and have access to 4 types of OS's...Mac OS X...older version on PowerPC G5 Quad Core, Windows 7 on Core 2 Quad, Ubuntu on Core 2 Quad, and Linux Lite OS on lower spec'd hardware. There ARE options!

If you travel and use computers that are not your own there is always Pen Drive Linux:

http://www.pendrivelinux.com/

Good Luck and Stay Safe!
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MrF says:
The thing is, those who don't want to upgrade from, say, Win XP to Win 7, are those who don't like to have to learn how to use their computer all over again, when what they are using does the job they need done.

It took me a while to get used to using Windows 7 instead of XP, and to figure out how to do things which became harder in Win 7 (like configuring file type settings), but now I prefer Win 7, which is definitely more stable than XP, and will be supplied with security patches until 2020. Migrating to Linux is a much bigger change. I have dabbled in Linux but I'm sure you will be horrified to hear that I don't like it very much.

Incidentally, as maligned as Microsoft is, I find the OS support policy of Apple considerably more reprehensible, since they never support any version of Mac OS with security patches for more than 3 years or so. (For those who don't know, Mac OS, and also iPhone iOS, are basically Unix/Linux clones with flashy user interfaces.)