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Comment by ihattendorf | Hacker News Reader

Just keep in mind, any binary firmware (e.g. WiFi/radio) you have isn't getting security updates and can't be patched by your ROM provider.

For example, my Nexus 5 is vulnerable to Broadpwn (CVE-2017-9417), but since Google stop supporting it I'll never get the updated Broadcom firmware. LineageOS can't patch this, so I either need to live with the fact my device is vulnerable to WiFi takeover or switch to a supported phone.

I'm seriously considering picking up an iPhone because of this.

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And Apple is well known for installing updates that kill their devices by way of ram and cpu exhaustion. I've been called too many times, because Apple update, one of, destroyed machine.

In reality, open hardware is also what's needed, so we can patch firmware ourselves when vendors cant or wont. That too is a massive uphill battle.

Is this really something they're doing intentionally? Or is it just something we notice on Apple devices because you can actually update your 4 year old device?

Given that they control the hardware and software, I believe they know full well what they're doing when they put out a new update to devices that cannot handle it. They could provide a warning "During testing, your device may not run at full speed, due to age of hardware and new features added." and offer to install.

With Microsoft, I give them a bye primarily because aside their Surface line, they don't control every possible configuration, and have to deal with a wide ecosystem of hardware.

Even then, since Vista, most versions of windows tend to run about as well on the same hardware, sometimes better.

I doubt that they're doing this intentionally. If your development target is modern hardware with a cutting-edge CPU, that's what you'll optimize to and that's what will perform well. I guess the fact that modern versions of iOS don't work well on old iphones shows that they're not optimizing for old CPUs. That's disappointing, but that's not planned obsolescence.

Also, realize that if we do get repairability laws, the incentive to target and optimize system updates to brand-new hardware will only grow.

If they're developing for the cutting-edge device, but also releasing the same software for the older CPUs, it's hard to say that they're not doing it intentionally. They know exactly the experience that they're giving to the customer.

Adding new features to software to run on yesterday's hardware is harder than running it on tomorrow's hardware. That's work that needs to be done - and its work that won't make Apple any new money. Choosing to do that optimization work is choosing to spend money on customers that aren't paying for the update.

And you'd rather not get security updates?

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