Windows XP

Stefonius wrote:

bwanshoom wrote:

Stefonius wrote:

Tom/Barb wrote:
Apple iMac never needs any new versions, the updates are free.

...until Apple decides that your hardware is obsolete, or until they come out with something shinier and more expensive. Then they abandon you like you never existed.

Seems to me like they have reasonable support for older hardware. The latest version of OSX supports hardware going back at least 6 years and iOS7 support iPhone 4 onwards which is over 3 years old (nearly ancient in smartphone terms).

My PowerMac G4 isn't supported by any version of OSX made after 10.5. Drivers and programs for it are becoming increasingly nonexistent.
My iPod Touch (1st generation) doesn't support any iOS higher than version 3.
My iPad (1st generation) doesn't support any iOS higher than version 5.
Apple's response? Tough crap... spend more money on newer hardware.
By contrast, I can still run darn near anything on my elderly PC platforms. Whether it's fast or not is a different story.

I don't think you can expect your devices (iPad & iPod) to be supported more than about 5 years, regardless of the manufacturer. The mobile market is moving too fast that to happen. It's no different in the Android world - many devices are abandoned even before they're end of life (which is generally 2 years). And Windows Phone 7 had no backward compatibility when it was introduced.

Your computer is almost 10 years old. Outside of Linux is there any support for any computer 10 years old on any OS? Maybe you can run Windows 7 on it (assuming you have at least 1GB RAM), but I suspect that would be a bit painful. And if you run XP you're not able to use new hardware because there will be no drivers for it.

I think your expectations for usable life of devices and computers are a bit longer than the norm.