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

  • panda_abyss@lemmy.ca
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    15 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.

    • ramble81@lemmy.zip
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      15 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.

    • Buffalox@lemmy.world
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      15 days ago

      "Microsoft’s decision to end support for Windows 10 could make 400 million computers obsolete

      This is more stupid, and I absolutely agree with the article it shouldn’t be legal to end support of an OS this quickly, mind you this is not update to a new OS, like is common on phones, but mostly security updates for the OS you purchased with the device.
      I absolutely think 10 years should be a minimum, but for PC, I can easily see an argument for 15 years, as many systems are purpose built, and should keep working even if an OS is discontinued.

      A similar argument can be made for phones, but maybe that should just be 10 or maybe even just 5 years, which very few phones have. My vote is on 10 years, because what some companies have been doing for a long time, only supporting security updates for 3 years is not acceptable IMO. If the phone is free to install custom ROM unhindered, I would be more understanding, but phones are generally locked, potentially rendering them worthless if updates are not available.

      • JustARaccoon@lemmy.world
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        15 days ago

        I think I’d prefer if there was a minimum updates guarantee that OS sellers would have to disclose, but even then I’m more in favour of other companies being able to pick up the work by making sure devices have their bootloader unlockable after they don’t get any more updates for X amount of time, rather than add burden to OS makers, because forcing people to support a project for Y amount of years would really harm indie developers releasing Linux distros and the like

        • Buffalox@lemmy.world
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          15 days ago

          rather than add burden to OS makers

          It’s not a burden for the OS maker, except when the OS is the product, and in that case it’s only fair.
          With Android the phone maker adapt the OS to their phones and flavor of Android, if they can’t handle maintaining it, they can use vanilla. Google is the OS maker, and I think they can handle the burden.

          • ell1e@leminal.space
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            15 days ago

            The EU has been so far bad at making sure FOSS isn’t seen as a paid product in the eyes of regulation, even in cases where it’s clearly unpaid, see here. They can’t be trusted to get this differentiation right.

            Therefore, unlockable bootloader seems like the better idea. Get people to Linux and open Android variants if the closed-source companies won’t serve them.