MS should do a better job in protecting us we shouldn't have to run anti-virus or compromise the functionality of Windows in order to configure a secure system.
Not their job. Produce a quality product, yes. Save us from Societies miscreants, no.

Come to think of it we should be able to choose which operating system we use without having to worry about software and hardware incompatibilities.
You can choose. Don't forget until recently if you wanted to run any Mac OS version you had to buy their hardware. Times are getting better for OS choices.

in order to keep backwards compatability with old programs
Give the people what they want.