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Comment by GSimon | Hacker News Reader

> Apple neither forces OS updates, nor forces app updates

In practice they do. I recently deleted a timelapse app from my new phone (se) because the app wouldn't work with the new update. That may not be the best airtight example as the new OS update I did 'choose' to upgrade to which did somehow break the app, and the creator didn't release an updated version for the new OS, but in a real world scenario are you going to discontinue OS updates on a device you purchased months earlier for a few apps? Meanwhile there's decade old computers running windows xp that have no problems starting photoshop 7.0. There's also this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PH1BKPSGcxQ showing Windows upgrades from earliest versions to newest and software like excel being compatible from earliest versions onward.

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Except Microsoft officially stopped supporting Windows XP in 2014[1], and they had already extended support much longer than they had wanted to because XP was so long-lived and customers pushed back against having to upgrade to Vista. Vista support completely ended last year, and mainstream support for 7 ended in 2015, and 8.1 last month[2]. If you upgraded that decade-old computer to a secure OS then it will almost certainly run terribly. It's fine to run Photoshop 7 on an old PC that's not connected to the internet, but how realistic or useful is that?

Under the old desktop upgrade model it's easier to run an unmaintained OS, but that doesn't mean it's a good idea.

Edit: Obviously running a lightweight linux distro is an option for the more technically minded, and it would be great to see projects like https://www.postmarketos.org become more widespread for extending the life of tablet and phone hardware.

[1] https://support.microsoft.com/en-ca/help/14223/windows-xp-en...

[2] https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/lifecycle/search?alpha=W...

There's lots of software that is still being used on machines running Windows XP, some aren't connected to the internet and others are -gasp- risking the lack of windows support (which was generously offered for nearly two decades.) exposing their photoshop to vulnerabilities. You can be pedantic and alarmist about my specific example and ignore the general point of software compatibility if you want I guess. IRL there are 3yr old dated, useless iPads everywhere and that's not the same with even most 5yr+ year old PCs (which would have the specs to upgrade to a new OS and not break your existing software, if you choose to do so)

> If you upgraded that decade-old computer to a secure OS then it will almost certainly run terribly.

If I chose to put Windows 10 on my 9 year old desktop, it'd run better than Windows 10 on the laptop I bought a year ago as a netbook-style machine. Anything that can run Windows 7 well can run Windows 10 well, and machines that would be well-suited to Windows 7 weren't uncommon a decade ago.

But that's all beside the point. The point is that having a single source for software to run on a piece of hardware, and not having control over access to your software, puts a hard upper limit on how long a device will be useful. It's more practical to do something useful on the 18 year old Windows 98 machine I've got at home than my iPod Touch that's half that age. My Android tablet is just a couple of years younger; it's still a useful device because I can keep around backups of apks, download software from project pages, or add one of several app stores that still provide working software.

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