Regarding software, I think that pushing updates that essentially kill devices should fall under right to repair. I generally delay my ios updates out of concern whether space and ram will get eaten up. There probably won’t be an os update that enables a new app or feature I’m looking for. I’m not one to run unknown software and with the walled garden can’t really download any executables anyways.

Also had win 10 updates kill a laptop in this manner that was then extended another 7 years by switching to Ubuntu.

Updates that kill devices are at best a defect that is the manufacturer's responsibility to fix or pay for. At worst computer sabotage, which is a crime.

Unfortunately courts have yet to get "bitey" on this issue. I guess it needs to hit a few more judges until the hammer comes down hard.

Are there cases now where an update bricks devices that are still supported and the manufacturer doesn't fix it? Genuinely asking as I don't know of any such cases.

I haven't had a device brick, but every time Windows 10 runs an update on my old macbook I usually have to revert it. Well, Windows reverts it itself; but it involves multiple reboots and I have to handhold it by holding down "alt" all the time so it goes into the right OS. Very annoying. Especially when I just need the OS for a quick thing and Microsoft has decided that I need to wait 30 minutes to use an OS I touch every couple months or so.

I know the argument here would be "well keep your os up to date", but the point is that the updates themselves no longer work on this laptop for whatever reason; yet microsoft insists on breaking my laptop every tuesday for these "critical" fixes that I never really need.

Win10 was released 2015-07.

The expected use time of a dishwasher is 10 years. Which is a machine with mechanical parts and a lot of wear and tear, corrosive chemicals, decaying seals, etc. A computer with fewer movable parts and a higher price should last longer. That software manufacturers don't support that notion is a problem that needs to be dealt with.

If you read again, the claim is that after a failed Windows 10 update that device ran another 7 years on Ubuntu. As Windows 10 was launched less than 7 years ago, that is a lie.

With a sufficiently generous interpretation it might have been a preview build. But then he wouldn't be entitled to complain, because of course a preview might break.

More probably you are right.

I don’t have an exact timeframe in my head and wrote things on the fly. The point is that Ubuntu is going perfectly fine and will continue to do so whereas windows bricked the system. I also think it’s common practice with year estimation to round up to the next year.

I agree, but I don't think windows falls into that category. For what it is worth, win10 is in my experience pretty great (in this regard). And windows by and large have also been that way.

My 8 year old sony laptop had kludges to be supported by windows 8 (which it came with...). Sony quit the laptop game before win 10 and I figured it would be a nightmare to ever get off win8.

Turns out Windows 10 was way easier to install than what was ever officially supported (especially if you wanted a clean install) and there are no issues keeping it up to date.

And even that is dwarfed by desktops.