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What's with the updates in our technology ? has it always been this situation that Computer manufacturers stop providing upgrades after a few time?

Like android tries hard, but no device older than 3 years is going to get the latest android . i phone guys say they get the latest ios on iphone 6 plus, but isn't that also like 6 generations later device?what about iphone 4s or iphone 3g or iphone1 ?

So far i guess microsoft and laptop manufacturers are winning at this area... i believe i could find some peeps with their 10 yo fatass pc running win 10 . Or maybe iot, i am not sure but i wonder if those microwaves won't be compatible with the latest version of whatever OS they are using (if there is a mechanism to update one)

I was actually reading about the operating systems. My point regarding this post was that the OS's have been architectured to be modular and h/w independent for years . Nearly every OS has this HAL layer which literally has the function to abstract hardware and give apis to system such that whatever the hardware there is down below, the system would not have to worry.

So why does new updates to the os not pushed to older devices? why do manufacturers give the reasons that we don't push updates because the hardware is incompatible with the os?

Comments
  • 7
    Phone manufacturers are in it to push new devices, so making the OS incompatible with their hardware is the name of the game.

    For desktop/laptops on the other hand, they have a harder time controlling, Windows is currently trying to do it but making every update incompatible and broken anyway.
  • 7
    Welcome to capitalism.
    You don't make money by not selling new devices.
  • 1
    @C0D4 @Oktokolo yeah i am aware of the capitalism reason. But is it possible tho? Am asking this as majorly an OS level challenge, and i feel pretty confident that this is going to be a complete fail.

    for eg, consider android . these days we have advanced cameras which can do h/w level bokeh affects, and whatnot. So say if there is a 2013 HAL which opens only 15 features of any general camera, then surely a 2020 camera with 106 features CAN BE FITTED in a 2013 smartphone . But a 2013 smartphone's OS will only be able to use the 15 features its HAL opens and none of the latest ones.

    But i guess a 2020 OS, i.e android 10 or 11 CAN'T BE FITTED in such 2013 phone because android 10 is made around the HAL with 106 open camera ports and thus making a 15 port HAL from year 2013 completely incompatible.

    So why the half lies? why even have a HAL when we can't support a hardware for 7 years?
  • 1
    @StopWastingTime from that standpoint sure, it would be possible. But then the rest of the device may not be. Compute power, available ram, ect to handle the newer OS - granted the os could be modified.

    Plus the longer they support older hardware, the less likely you'll be to go and buy newer hardware.

    Capitalism controls the tech world.
  • 1
    I have the latest android on my 7 years old phone 🤷‍♂️
  • 1
    I am sure it's because of "capitalism."

    Even if they are sure that their phone can handle new OS they will just sure the hardware is outdated to sell more device. It is the most convincing (and most likely) reason (lie?) that consumer will accept.

    Let assume for the moment that there is a "good" company. For them they have to check/test whether their previous sold phone is compatible with new OS. It's take time and effort to test whether it is actually compatible. They are not going to do it because a person (someone on the internet) will raise hell if they got it wrong and break their phone.

    In summary

    When they got it right = they waste money,time and only get appreciation of a few percentage of people

    When they got it wrong = waste money,time, bad PR.

    The cons out weights the pros.Therefore for company (whether greedy or "good" one) the right choice is to say "hardware is outdated".
  • 4
    It's called planned obsolescence.

    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

    Just more corporate space cadet bullshit.
  • 2
    @SortOfTested Came here to say this.

    It's the same reason fridges don't last very long; knives, too. People don't blink at buying the same items multiple times over a span of years, but paying multiple times more for a better, more durable one? That just doesn't happen. So items are designed to break or wear out, which saves the company money in R&D, manufacturing, etc. AND nets more sales. It works like a charm. And makes me hate humanity.
  • 3
    @StopWastingTime
    If you want to know, whether supporting hardware from twenty years ago is possible - look at Linux.
    Spoiler alert: Yes.
  • 1
    @Oktokolo android uses Linux. Clearly they are doing something wrong.
  • 0
    @electrineer and about your previous comment : which crazy phone are u using that got Android 10 even after 7 years?
  • 0
    @StopWastingTime Samsung S4. Obviously not updated by Samsung, but I wouldn't want to use their rom anyway. It's still officially supported by lineageos, which should guarantee that everything important works.

    I no longer use it as my main phone, but it's still in daily use.
  • 0
    @electrineer
    As i wrote further up:
    "Welcome to capitalism.
    You don't make money by not selling new devices."

    This is not a technical problem. It is, how, in our society, the goals are set. They aren't even doing anything wrong when seen from the "companies' only goal is to make their owners rich" perspective.

    The solution (if you believe, that sacrificing your and your children's living environment for the short-term profit of a few investors indeed is an issue) is to avoid being a consumer as much as possible.
    Some PDAs with phone function can be used with alternative firmware after they have been declared end of live by their creators.
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