> Would you accept the same logic for the software in a car? I don't think it would be acceptable if e.g. Tesla, a company that relies heavily on software in the car, would stop fixing security (and safety) issues after three or even five years after you bought the car.
yeah, i would be pretty mad if my car stopped getting critical updates after three years, but there are a lot of reasons why this is not an apples-to-apples comparison. software defects in a car directly risk your physical safety. vulnerabilities in a phone can also have severe consequences, but it's a very different kind of risk.
let's also not forget that a new car costs at least fifteen times as much as a new phone, and cars are regularly driven for ten to twenty years before they are scrapped. during this time, the manufacturer is getting a steady stream of revenue from selling replacement parts that they can use to offset the cost of providing safety recalls for old models. and even car companies aren't obligated to do recalls after fifteen years.
> To prevent this problem and the waste of resources that goes with it, it would even be okay for me to have laws that sanctions abandoning software like this.
do you really think the typical consumer cares about updates or security? they don't buy a new phone because the old one isn't getting updates. they buy a new one because they've smashed the shit out of their old one or they just want a new thing. i'm not sure what "resources" would be saved by forcing phone manufacturers to support old models that consumers don't want anyway. you would just end up deleting the $100-200 range of phones.
yeah, i would be pretty mad if my car stopped getting critical updates after three years, but there are a lot of reasons why this is not an apples-to-apples comparison. software defects in a car directly risk your physical safety. vulnerabilities in a phone can also have severe consequences, but it's a very different kind of risk.
let's also not forget that a new car costs at least fifteen times as much as a new phone, and cars are regularly driven for ten to twenty years before they are scrapped. during this time, the manufacturer is getting a steady stream of revenue from selling replacement parts that they can use to offset the cost of providing safety recalls for old models. and even car companies aren't obligated to do recalls after fifteen years.
> To prevent this problem and the waste of resources that goes with it, it would even be okay for me to have laws that sanctions abandoning software like this.
do you really think the typical consumer cares about updates or security? they don't buy a new phone because the old one isn't getting updates. they buy a new one because they've smashed the shit out of their old one or they just want a new thing. i'm not sure what "resources" would be saved by forcing phone manufacturers to support old models that consumers don't want anyway. you would just end up deleting the $100-200 range of phones.