3 ms·

You have a good point. It took some consideration for me to use the term “planned obsolescence” because it really is a different and more nefarious thing. Like

by devjab 3y ago

You have a good point. It took some consideration for me to use the term “planned obsolescence” because it really is a different and more nefarious thing. Like the ink printers who would squirt excess print into a sponge and then stop working when they had done it x amount of times, which could be fixed by resetting the count. I couldn’t come up with a better term for it though. Maybe planned abandonment? In either case the result is sort of similar on an enterprise level. Like here in Denmark we buy Chromebooks for school and use a lot of Google education, and while you can certainly have some privacy debates about that (and we have), the prospect of non-updated software is a different issue. EOL devices are replaced in those enterprise settings because of the security risk and the support burden they pose. In theory you could do things about it, but they are operated by IT departments of maybe 3 techies who also support all the other devices for the 5000+ employees in a municipality so it’s almost always cheaper to simply replace the devices. In the past this often made sense because the hardware was so old it couldn’t really run “new things”. It might even make sense for Chromebooks that are 7 year olds here in 2023, but it probably won’t make sense the next time. I don’t think the practice of Google will change voluntarily, so to me it sort of becomes “planned obsolescence” even though it’s not exactly the same thing as there is total transparency with the EOL on software updates. But you’re right, it’s not the same.

glimshe 3y ago
Windows and even macOS have longer support periods, so the market is already taking care of the problem. Google is notorious for short support periods (aren't Pixel phones supported for only 3 years?), so why is the government buying Chromebooks for schools without mandating longer support terms? Also, as the parent said, as long as you can "jailbreak" your device and install anything you want, support periods are simply a competitive advantage.
- devjab 3y ago
  > so why is the government buying Chromebooks for schools without mandating longer support terms? Having spent a decade in politically led organisations I wouldn't personally rely on them for long term planing. I still remember when our analysis team went before the elected officials and told them that if our citizenship increased from 50.000 to 60.000 then they would likely need bigger schools in 5-10 years because 90% of the people moving to our city were young families. Increasing our citizenship to 70.000 was part of the priorities from basically every political party, they even paid the top management bonuses if this was achieved. But the schools were never expanded. Then 5-10 years later when there weren't enough room in the schools and the parents started operating their own "free schools" (basically the same as public schools but more expensive for the city), the politicians spent 6 months trying to find someone within the administration to blame for not warning them that this would happen. So the easy answer is that they bought them because they thought they were cheap.
- daveoc64 3y ago
  >aren't Pixel phones supported for only 3 years? Pixel 6 and later get 3 years of OS feature updates, and a further 2 years of security updates (5 years in total).
  - Lapha 3y ago
    This change is likely only due to anticipation of a proposed EU law that would require 3+2 years of support, the Pixel 5a released in 2021 will only get 3 years of support, including security updates, and every single Pixel and Nexus phone that has been discontinued has had <= 3 years of support. For comparison, all but the first 2 iPhones have received 4-5 years of support with the iPhone 6S being the oldest iPhone still receiving support almost 8 years later. Android has been a complete joke when it comes to software support for older hardware, it's almost sad that it took proposed legislative pressure to change this.
chongli 3y ago
Like the ink printers who would squirt excess print into a sponge and then stop working when they had done it x amount of times, which could be fixed by resetting the count. Inkjet printers are a fatally flawed technology for occasional printing (the vast majority of home printing needs). They really should be relegated to commercial printing only. Ink dries up, makes a sticky mess, and clogs the very tiny nozzles of the print head. People who buy inkjet printers and then only print once a month or less are basically buying something they can only print with a handful of times ever before the machine needs service. These people would be way better served by laser printers which are far more serviceable, durable, and completely amenable to occasional printing (no liquids to dry up)!
- Etherlord87 3y ago
  I bought the cheapest HP printer a few years ago. As every HP printer I ever tested, it has problems with the paper feed (grabs multiple pages at once or, usually, can't grab any at all). However, in regards to the printing heads, no problems for years, and I had probably over 10 one-month pauses between printing. Meaning, you're just wrong, inkjet printers aren't nearly as unreliable as you portray them.

by devjab 3y ago

glimshe 3y ago

Windows and even macOS have longer support periods, so the market is already taking care of the problem. Google is notorious for short support periods (aren't Pixel phones supported for only 3 years?), so why is the government buying Chromebooks for schools without mandating longer support terms? Also, as the parent said, as long as you can "jailbreak" your device and install anything you want, support periods are simply a competitive advantage.

devjab 3y ago
> so why is the government buying Chromebooks for schools without mandating longer support terms? Having spent a decade in politically led organisations I wouldn't personally rely on them for long term planing. I still remember when our analysis team went before the elected officials and told them that if our citizenship increased from 50.000 to 60.000 then they would likely need bigger schools in 5-10 years because 90% of the people moving to our city were young families. Increasing our citizenship to 70.000 was part of the priorities from basically every political party, they even paid the top management bonuses if this was achieved. But the schools were never expanded. Then 5-10 years later when there weren't enough room in the schools and the parents started operating their own "free schools" (basically the same as public schools but more expensive for the city), the politicians spent 6 months trying to find someone within the administration to blame for not warning them that this would happen. So the easy answer is that they bought them because they thought they were cheap.
daveoc64 3y ago
>aren't Pixel phones supported for only 3 years? Pixel 6 and later get 3 years of OS feature updates, and a further 2 years of security updates (5 years in total).
- Lapha 3y ago
  This change is likely only due to anticipation of a proposed EU law that would require 3+2 years of support, the Pixel 5a released in 2021 will only get 3 years of support, including security updates, and every single Pixel and Nexus phone that has been discontinued has had <= 3 years of support. For comparison, all but the first 2 iPhones have received 4-5 years of support with the iPhone 6S being the oldest iPhone still receiving support almost 8 years later. Android has been a complete joke when it comes to software support for older hardware, it's almost sad that it took proposed legislative pressure to change this.

chongli 3y ago

Like the ink printers who would squirt excess print into a sponge and then stop working when they had done it x amount of times, which could be fixed by resetting the count. Inkjet printers are a fatally flawed technology for occasional printing (the vast majority of home printing needs). They really should be relegated to commercial printing only. Ink dries up, makes a sticky mess, and clogs the very tiny nozzles of the print head. People who buy inkjet printers and then only print once a month or less are basically buying something they can only print with a handful of times ever before the machine needs service. These people would be way better served by laser printers which are far more serviceable, durable, and completely amenable to occasional printing (no liquids to dry up)!

Etherlord87 3y ago
I bought the cheapest HP printer a few years ago. As every HP printer I ever tested, it has problems with the paper feed (grabs multiple pages at once or, usually, can't grab any at all). However, in regards to the printing heads, no problems for years, and I had probably over 10 one-month pauses between printing. Meaning, you're just wrong, inkjet printers aren't nearly as unreliable as you portray them.