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Campaigners urge EU to mandate 15 years of OS updates (www.theregister.com)
submitted 11 months ago by to c/technology@lemmy.world
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Should OS makers, like Microsoft, be legally required to provide 15 years of security updates?

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[–] 20 points 11 months ago (7 children)

15 years is too long, it doesn't match the state of the industry or technological progress.

If anything this slows down innovation which leads me to suspect the 15 year idea was though of by someone who dislikes any technical changes.

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  • [–] 14 points 11 months ago (2 children)

    15 years is actually reasonable.

    I have a ten year old laptop with an i7 processor, 16 GB RAM, and 1 TB SSD. It still does most things, I bought it for initially just fine. Granted this was one of the best laptops you could buy at the time.

    Apple stopped supporting it with a current version of macOS a couple of years ago sadly. It’s still possible to patch newer versions to install and run on the old machine, but it’s a bit of a hassle.

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  • [–] 2 points 10 months ago (1 child)

    Are we talking OpenCore Patcher? I was actually planning on trying that for my Early 2013 MBP, but I'm leaning more towards some Linux distro now, for the longevity of it, though I haven't yet figured out which distro supports my MBP the best. Got any recommendations to share on some of this?

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  • [–] 1 point 10 months ago

    Yes, OpenCore Legacy Patcher.

    Regarding Linux distributions, I don’t have a specific recommendation. You might be worse off with a distro that doesn’t include nonfree drivers for wifi, bluetooth, graphics by default. IIRC these MBPs use Broadcom Wifi chips. Ubuntu and derivatives would be my first try. Definitely read up on how to install Linux on MBPs. You probably might have to configure something in OpenFirmware/EFI.

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  • [–] 1 point 11 months ago (1 child)

    But unlike server aided services an OS still keeps working. You can use that PC for 10 more years, if you like.

    I think there’s a discrepancy in the understanding of ‘support’ and what it entails in different technology fields. Demanding to receive NEW features for decades is not feasible in the current economic environment.

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  • [–] 7 points 11 months ago

    Before Microsoft demanded TPM 2.0, you could install the latest version of Windows on extremely old hardware. Easily reaching that 15 years. We had this already. And Windows 11 can easily run without TPM 2.0. Microsoft just has business reasons to demand it. So I don't see how innovation is slowed down by this.

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  • [–] 5 points 11 months ago

    Or an established player in the market that wants to keep competitors out (but I guess in a way that is someone who dislikes change). While legislation like this can sometimes be great (e.g. the recent changes forcing longer support for mobile phones) there comes a point where it cuts the other way and it becomes an entry barrier.

    Imo the better solution would be to legislate what happens after support ends. Like forcing the disclosure of at least some documentation that allows others to continue servicing the product or at least transfer out data and install other software on the device.

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  • [–] 5 points 11 months ago

    15 years is too long, it doesn’t match the state of the industry or technological progress.

    How is this too long? I would consider it a reasonable amount of time to receive security updates on a computer.

    I have a notebook that I bought in 2012. It can run Ubuntu LTS 24.04, which is supported until 2034, without issue. There is no indication that the next release will stop supporting this hardware. I don't see why Microsoft couldn't provide this.

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