Should OS makers, like Microsoft, be legally required to provide 15 years of security updates?

  • panda_abyss@lemmy.ca
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    7 days ago

    This is stupid.

    15 years is a massive time to just update your OS.

    15 years ago instagram didn’t exist, the iPad was new, and people were just updating from Vista to Windows 7. I think Hadoop was just created then.

    That is a massive amount of time to support software that would have almost no architectural protection against things like heartbleed.

    • atomicbocks@sh.itjust.works
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      7 days ago

      Instagram has existed for 14 years and 11 months. I think you might be pushing it on the not 15 years.

      But more importantly though, Windows XP was supported for 18 years…

      So it’s not like it can’t be done.

    • CriticalMiss@lemmy.world
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      7 days ago

      My ThinkPad x230 will soon turn 13 (since it was manufactured, I picked it up second hand from a business that went bankrupt). It’s still alive and kicking, just not with Windows. The hardware is dated, but for what I do it’s good enough. I only replaced the battery and the screen. I don’t care for instagram or any of that crap, this machine chugged along for 13 years, it will chug at least for another 5. Don’t let hardware manufacturers normalize dunking perfectly capable good hardware into a landfill because it hurts their profits. If you need any further proof just look into the old Apple hardware modding and some of the stuff they pulled off.

    • Cricket [he/him]@lemmy.zip
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      6 days ago

      Windows used to support really old hardware, I believe more than 15 years old until they introduced the new requirements for particular CPU models and TPM 2.0 chips. If anything, I feel that 15 years is too short. iPads and Hadoop have nothing to do with PC hardware.

    • ramble81@lemmy.zip
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      7 days ago

      And yet people are bitching because Windows 10 is getting cut off after 10 years of support. Raise it to 15 and people will just bitch at the 15 year mark.

    • thethunderwolf@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      6 days ago

      Better laws would be:

      • to mandate open source relaease at EOS
      • automatically public domain at EOS
      • require paid operating systems to supporr hardware from 15 years ago (as a consumer protection law, so that it only applies to paid OS’s (and also ones that require a license, even if it’s “free” due to coming with the hardware), so that foss projects arent hurt)