Comment on Why can computers, like even very old laptops can seemingly get OS updates forever, while mobile devices hardly get a few years of updates before getting stuck out of date?

the_q@lemmy.zip ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

• throwawayacc0430@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  I mean, I guess my questiin is: “Why don’t they pull the same shit on computers then?”

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  • leftzero@lemmynsfw.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

    Because IBM built the PC as a side project out of mainly off-the-shelf parts, except for the BIOS, never intending it to be more than one of many personal computers in the market… and then Compaq and Columbia Data Products reverse engineered said BIOS making PC-compatible clones a possibility.

    Open BIOSes and a personal computer made of essentially off-the-shelf parts led to everyone and their aunt making PC-compatible machines, and the personal computer boom, and most personal computers being able to run mostly the same software.

    IBM tried to lock it back down with the PS/2, and Microsoft also later tried to lock it down to Windows with some shady schemes like ACPI, but all attempts ultimately failed because by that point the PC ecosystem was so large that any attempts at lockdown were sidestepped by other vendors, or eventually reverse engineered or bypassed.

    Sadly the same never happened with phones. The PC thing was a serendipitous fluke to start with, phones aren’t made of off-the-shelf parts, and manufacturers were wise to the “risk” and made sure to keep as much control as possible.

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  • BCsven@lemmy.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

    Windows11 is trying to do just that; having a minimum spec chip, so they could eventually drop support for a lot of older hardware. But PCs are so modular that you can pretty much add any hardware together and the OS (such as Linux) can figure out the packages you need to make it all run…but even Linux has dropped a lot of 32bit support in the last few years. So it happens, just at a much longer time frame

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    • IsoKiero@sopuli.xyz ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

      even Linux has dropped a lot of 32bit support in the last few years

      And that’s just because no developer uses those systems anymore actively. If you really want to, you can pick up from where they left and bring the support back. But as 32bit x86 CPUs haven’t been produced in the last 20 years (give or take a few years) there’s just not that many working systems around anymore.

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      • BCsven@lemmy.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

        Yeah, no point supporting something that has become obsolete. Foss community often puts effort in as passion, but a business will not want technical debt and move on to the next hardware support

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  • spankmonkey@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

    Microsoft makes money supporting their OS on older hardware for businesses. That has gone on long enough they have to continue, and they might as well share it with everyone else.

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  • Dran_Arcana@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

    They’re trying to, but market adoption has said so far that we’re unwilling to tolerate it.

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