[coldtea]

>A 10 year old computer ought to still be usable.

Usable maybe, updated with new OS updates though?

Those either costs money to develop (if we're talking point, security etc updates to long dead OS versions), or stalls the development of new features (if any new OS version must run in 10 year old PCs).

[rythie]

I'm not sure that it does to be honest. UI effects can be disabled on older machines.

Cameras, Cars, Microwaves, Washing machines & DVD players all last 10 years or more easily. A 2006 Macbook had 512MB (upgradable to 2GB) and 1.8Ghz CPU, which is not really much different to modern netbook.

[coldtea]

>I'm not sure that it does to be honest. UI effects can be disabled on older machines.

Yes, but UI effects are just the tip of the iceberg of new features. Some depend on the specific hardware capabilities (e.g. bluetooth being present, or even specific version), others involve several components working in tandem and depend on increased speed of later machines, others require specific cpu/gpu support, etc.

>Cameras, Cars, Microwaves, Washing machines & DVD players all last 10 years or more easily.

And all of these have 2 or 3 orders of magnitude less complexity, plus they're not general purpose devices.