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I think the discovery of new types of exploits could be considered akin to wear-and-tear of physical things you buy. At the point of sale the software was safe, but over time problems were discovered.

When you buy a house you have a whole battery of inspections performed to make sure that you're buying somewhere safe, but over time the small things that got overlooked (like a small crack in a roof joint) or were considered safe at the point of sale become worn, or are discovered to be unsafe (locks susceptible to bumplocking for instance).

It's a tenuous analogy to be sure, but I don't think it's reasonable to think that Microsoft should refund people who bought XP. Are there any Linux distributions that back port all fixes to version 0.1?




Could asbestos be a good analogy? As far as I know we don't generally hold the original construction company responsible for its removal.




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