others use it with vista,currently *BUT* they recommend using it with win 7-8 .. did you write an email to Microsoft ? remember it's them that have changed things a tad with windows 8. thats not in control of cakewalk..
4 years is the "normal" life cycle for a pc.. either pretty much. Although a family member has had their xp for 10+ and is moaning I told them they will have to upgrade/change before june 2014...
video / audio / animation work as standard for years has demanded an up to date pc to get the most of out of. It's a niche market in that respect and most see that as a "taken" unless they don't upgrade.
Apple in the past wanted you to buy a new machine to run the latest version of logic.
say a cpu killing / amazing sounding vst .. e.g u-he diva .. so you gonna complain to them about their plugin being too resource hungry for your pc ?
if I removed the cob webs off my atari st / c-lab I can still use it to make music.. even though it's 18(?)years old now I guess. just obviously it don't record audio / use vst's.. and if the colour scheme brigade got a look at the screen they'd really moan ;-) (it's monochrome)
look at it this way, at least you know NOW, *BEFORE* buying.. steinberg stitched me up *AFTER* I'd upgraded regarding the "compatibility" of dsp factory in the past.