Decimator714 t1_isewvh9 wrote on October 15, 2022 at 1:28 PM

Reply to comment by BoilerButtSlut in Dishwasher keeps going by Atlantic76

Yep you hit the mark on this one.

Planned obselecense also has an entirely different meaning in the tech world. A company could plan to only provide software updates for only a few years. This is planned obselecense, especially if the software communicates with other devices. Eventually the outdated software will become forcibly obselete, and cannot communicate with newer software.

This is pretty big as I heard about certain washing machines having specific features that are exclusively controlled by an app. I would be willing to bet that it won't work after a decade or two.

But of course, like you said, it costs a lot of money to keep that stuff running. You can't expect them to be forced to do so.

It's up to the consumer to be informed and not buy shit products like that.

BoilerButtSlut t1_isfi7uc wrote on October 15, 2022 at 4:12 PM

Legacy software support and falls under the same boat. Going back into old code to add functionality for a legacy product is basically uneconomical to do, unless it's something you specifically promises a customer.

It's especially true because after an initial software release and support period, the team might be broken up and everyone goes to different projects. Bringing them back to add functionality or fixing non-critical bugs costs money and could easily delay new releases.

People look at these decisions as sinister, and they aren't. This is simply a case of consumers getting what they pay for: you want decades long parts availability/support? Well you're going to pay for that. You want updates software for years/decades? That's also going to cost you.