Containers on the desktop are a symptom of disease in much the way that a fever is a symptom of disease. Fevers mitigate viral replication efficiency. Containers on the desktop mitigate future shock from the underlying libraries changing so fast that software written at T+3 years cannot be compiled or run on system libs from T+0 years. Like a fever they cause lots of other problems that damage the system but at least preserve most functionality.
The accepted pace of churn in software has now shrunk below the release cycle rate of operating systems. The problem is caused by developer's obsession with the bleeding edge, not being lazy. But it's not just devs. These days if you haven't made a change in your software in the last year people will start asking if it's no longer developed. The eternal wave of now has to be surfed and stability is just a dream from the past.
It's excellent for many common software, but for most specialty software, it's often lacking. Despite all the decades of cruft still supported by current Windows, especially 32 bit editions, there are still tons and tons of XPs and Server 2008s and NT boxes in the wild just to support software that would otherwise break.
The accepted pace of churn in software has now shrunk below the release cycle rate of operating systems. The problem is caused by developer's obsession with the bleeding edge, not being lazy. But it's not just devs. These days if you haven't made a change in your software in the last year people will start asking if it's no longer developed. The eternal wave of now has to be surfed and stability is just a dream from the past.