Re:NetBSD 9.2
by medstrom on Wednesday May 19, 2021 @06:07AM
(#27206551)
Can you unpack? Software-defined planned obsolescence?
[ Parent
| on HN ]
Sure. Hardware producers have zero interest in supporting hardware they don't sell anymore, and if they sell a newer version that competes with the old then such maintenance is doubly costly - as it cuts into potential sales. But they can rely on developer laziness to eventually render what would otherwise be a durable good - into a consumable that must be constantly replaced in a predictable cycle. See the entirety of the smartphone market, for example.
Apple chose its logo well, it is well documented that they've crippled functional hardware through software updates - turning hardware into a perishable good. But Android might provide the best example of grotesquely wasteful consumerism - only made possible by the ever dependable, and yet somehow still plausibly deniable, software bit rot.