[etix]

> It's like devices are not even planned to be repaired. They are designed to be sold and then abandoned. That's the real issue. Not cost of repair.

Absolutely. Smartphones are the best example, the software makes the hardware unusable or insecure because of the lack of updates pretty quickly.

[taway_1212]

> the software makes the hardware unusable or insecure because of the lack of updates pretty quickly.

Or, alternatively, the (practically) mandatory updates make the previously perfectly fine phone slow to the point of being unusable.

I'm saying that the updates are practically mandatory because if you don't apply them, your apps gradually stop working (as they cannot talk to their respective server backends, which are being updated without maintaining backcompat) - and of course, the current version of the app requires the current(ish) version of iOS. This all amounts to an engineered obsolescence of millions of perfectly good phones.

[logingone]

Or, alternatively, last night my (untampered) phone got bricked by an ota update.

[oever]

Agreed. Software and hardware should be sold separately.

[briandear]

How does that work? Computers would be sold without operating systems? Good luck pitching that idea.

[oever]

Very simple: you buy hardware and software from different vendors. Each device must have enough information available publicly so that other companies can write software for it.

You might be able to purchase software and hardware at the same time, but there should be a choice of software and the price of the software should be listed separately on the bill.

The prevalent software business model of lock-in has infected hardware. This has disastrous consequences for the environment. Just because some software is unsupported, expensive hardware is bricked.

The parliament recommendation has this to say about this problem: "software solutions which prevent repairs from being performed, other than by approved firms or bodies, should be discouraged".

[simion314]

Better would be to force them to open source the drivers and specifications and repair guides for all devices, who knows if I can use my PS3 in 10 years, we will have to hope that open source community can make drivers for it.

[xxs]

Technically that works when you assemble one yourself and en-masse won't make any sense.