@sipurchdept yes, they should but they won't. There is no profit in that. It's great that we want to keep devices going for as long as possible but they is not in the interested of the OEM's, whoever they may be. They'll cite all kinds of reasons why they can't do that. It always comes down to network and computer security. Every patch, every update always makes it known that this is going to stop the next hack attack. I am not convinced that my computer requires the same security level as our infrastructure, finance and defense does. I do not use my regular network or my 12 year old computer for any of that. Yes, I still run Win7 and would still run XP if I could :-)
One good thing on this is, that there are a lot of good people working on device drivers and OS improvement, that are not driven by profit and greed but by their ability to write code (and enjoying it). It is those people and organizations that will help us to keep things going.
There is always a silver lining somewhere. The EU is being a bit faster and a bit more determined to make changes to this. PAragraph 14 on here https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/... is promising and could be expanded to included how obsoleting software will negatively impact sustainability.
Like @jayeff said, it is always best to keep a hardcopy of your OS handy and not to blindly accept updates :-)
That is why we need to continue to fight the good fight. We need to continue to support organizations like https://repair.eu/ and https://www.repair.org/stand-up who take our fight to the highest levels.
Repair is War on Entropy!
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Hi @sipurchdept,
Maybe a good idea to keep a backup of the OS or perhaps an OS install or ISO CD or USB drive.
That's what I've done with Win Vista and Win7 (and no doubt Win10 soon as well).
I've used Win Vista (in a dual OS setup) due to the fact that it has the necessary drivers (which the later OS don't have) that has allowed me to reinstall the firmware on an old .MP3 player several times now, which has kept it going for more years than the maker intended I'm sure.
by jayeff