M.L. Martin
Adventurer
So far as we can tell there are no crazy ad campaigns on the horizon telling us old D&D sucks and is bad and we're bad for playing it. There's nothing lurking back behind the curtain, no dirty tricks
I'm not entirely sure about that--some of the comments that have been made about 4E can be read that way, and WotC has never managed to launch a new edition without tearing down its immediate predecessor. (Although with a sample size of 2, it's tough to extrapolate. ) You, at least, can relax--1E has sometimes been ignored (the 4E campaign) and more often (3E, now) been held up in marketingspeak as the Golden Age they're trying to return to.
I do not know if WIZARDS OF THE COAST are planning to re-release, in a permanent fashion, older versions of D&D. As I said though I think they're smart, and I think they will. Probably through DDi, so they can control the sales a little bit better*, but it will get back out there. When people ask "What D&D is 'official'?" WIZARDS can respond, simply "All D&D is official. D&Dn is what's current."
I hope so; I really do.