> Why does my TV need updates nowadays? My car? Do I have to download updates for my clothes or my bed soon? How about the toilet? Those things don't all need

> Why does my TV need updates nowadays? My car? Do I have to download updates for my clothes or my bed soon? How about the toilet? Those things don't all need software to exist. But good luck buying a new TV or car these days that isn't 100% reliant on software to keep doing what you bought it to do. (And I'm sure there are clothes/furniture/toilet manufacturers looking very closely at John Deere's current business model to try and see if they can turn "buyers" into "recurring licensees" of their products.) But I think that's missing the article's point. It talks about "some old gadgets" and "each booted up successfully" and "Two perfectly good pieces of electronic gear have become useless, simply for want of software updates." - it's clearly not talking about clothes or beds, probably not cars (although arguably they count), and probably is talking about modern TVs (many of which het thrown away when the ancient Android version they run can no longer update to new versions of that apps the TV came with). I'm not sure whether "We should mandate that device manufacturers set aside a portion of the purchase price of a gadget to support ongoing software maintenance, forcing them to budget for a future they'd rather ignore." is the only/right answer. but the article certainly eraises an important question.