There are few things quite as emblematic of late stage capitalism than the concept of “planned obsolescence”.

  • hoodatninja@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    I have an 8 year old iPad that can still use Amazon video and can still run Netflix, and google drops support for these computers as early as 3 years. I’m not an Apple fanboy but that is absolutely ridiculous.

      • unconsciousvoidling@lemmy.one
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        1 year ago

        My 2nd gen Apple TV is garbage. Nearly all the apps fail to load now. 🤷‍♂️… I suppose I can try jailbreaking it but it sure feels like someone is trying to force me to upgrade my hardware.

    • HurlingDurling@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      I will give credit to Apple on that one because android phone manufacturers are now supporting their phone for longer because of how long Apple is supporting them.

      • kayazere@feddit.nl
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        1 year ago

        But for their laptops the support has dropped to the lowest in years. Some intel MacBooks no longer get the latest version after 6 years.

      • skulblaka@kbin.social
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        1 year ago

        I remember back in the day when I had apple devices where they would push updates for devices long past their capability to actually run the updated software. Rather than refuse the update or get a pruned patch with security fixes only, it would force updates and bloat your phone and grind it into unresponsive unusability after a few years.

        I hear that’s not so much the case anymore, so that’s nice. But I remember. The main reason I upgraded my phone was because of that, the hardware was great, but I could hardly use the software anymore even after clean installs.

        My point being, I guess, extended support is great if managed properly but it can also become a bludgeon with which to drive you toward the new generations of devices.

        • Sina@beehaw.org
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          1 year ago

          long past their capability to actually run the updated software

          Well, Apple intentionally slowed those devices down to make the users update, instead of using an insecure device, that would’ve provided a good experience otherwise.

          And these days Apple is retiring devices arbitrarily for profits too. For example this year they are retiring the Iphone 8, which has better hardware, than the ipad 2018 that is still being supported…

          • bedrooms@kbin.social
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            1 year ago

            That slowness was, at least officially, for the battery health. Do you have the support to prove otherwise?

            • Sina@beehaw.org
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              1 year ago

              Actually yes. I bought a brand new -discounted old stock- Iphone 4s for my mum near the end of the ios 8 cycle. The day before we installed ios 9 on it, it had okay performance and good battery life. Following the update to ios9 the performance went to complete shit. (the battery remained usable for 2 more years after, but it was not a good experience for her)

      • Romkslrqusz@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        has to be dumped

        OpenCore Legacy Patcher, Linux, ChromeOS Flex, and maybe even Windows 10 could all be options for that Mac. As-is ot would still be perfectly safe to use offline too.

      • hoodatninja@kbin.social
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        1 year ago

        What year is the mini from? I run a Plex server off a 2010 Mac mini.

        Apple devices are serviceable for far longer after the OS stops updating than windows/android devices in my experience. But regardless, Apple doesn’t discontinue support as early as 3 or 4 years. Even you have to admit that is ridiculous of google.

    • CalcProgrammer1@lemmy.ml
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      1 year ago

      I have a 15 year old laptop that can still browse the web and play YouTube videos just fine because PC is a standardized platform with an open standard bootloader and a BIOS/UEFI system designed to abstract the hardware so the OS doesn’t have to be tailor-made to the hardware. Mobile devices are absolute shit in this regard. Why does the OS have to be specifically built to target one particular device?

      It shouldn’t. End of question. This applies to Android, ChromeOS, and Apple devices equally.

      I’m glad mobile Linux is starting to take off and there seem to be some standards emerging around ARM booting, even if it is still an absolute shit show compared to the standardization of UEFI/BIOS on x86/x86-64. I know some ARM systems can UEFI boot but it’s few and far between still so most devices still need a tailored kernel at least. That said, ARM Linux doesn’t need the entire freaking stack tailored to a device like Android and iOS do.

    • keeb420@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      You’re also not a giant customer who needs security and it services like a school district. 3 years might be early, idk, but in plenty of enterprise or institutes replace their hardware every so often.

      • Sami@lemmy.zip
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        1 year ago

        My 2012 laptop runs windows 10 perfectly fine and has the latest security updates. We’re way past the point of using hardware limitations as an excuse for companies to drop support early.

        I don’t see why a school should have to replace their basic computers with an equally basic computer after 3 years unless it’s broken beyond repair. I don’t think the OS itself is doing much more than what an enterprise copy of windows does for security.

        • JackbyDev@programming.dev
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          1 year ago

          The only reason Windows 11 can’t run on super old hardware is because of the misleading decision to require secure boot (a feature of the motherboard that stops unsigned OSes from booting). The metaphor I use is that it is like a car radio manufacturer refusing to let a car radio work in cars that don’t have car alarms then calling the radio secure because of it.

          • CalcProgrammer1@lemmy.ml
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            1 year ago

            Yeah, Windows 11 is a bad example of supporting old hardware because Microsoft stupidly and maliciously requires secure boot and TPM2 just to lock out otherwise fine hardware from using Windows 11. You can run Win11 without secure boot or TPM2 with mods, the hardware is perfectly capable.

            Or just put Linux on it. Linux runs on damn near everything because it’s designed to run on damn near everything. There’s no profit motive to only support Linux on the newest and shiniest devices like there is for Apple, Google, Samsung, and even Microsoft (who sells most copies of Windows preinstalled on new PCs).

            • JackbyDev@programming.dev
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              1 year ago

              How do I go about running Win 11 without secure boot? I have a BIOS motherboard from 2009. Windows 10 is EOL relatively soon. I plan on getting a new computer and using some genre of Linux but I’m curious what to do about the current one.