[ls15]

How long is a book that you bought supposed to last until the license expires and you have to buy it again?

How long is a vinyl record that you bought supposed to last until the license expires and you have to buy it again?

How long is a wedding ring supposed to last until it needs to be replaced?

How long is my cast iron skillet supposed to work until it falls apart and I have to buy a new one?

[dangus]

Wedding rings need to be cleaned, and some common materials like rose and white gold are not finishes that last forever. Many popular stones are actually quite easily damaged. Settings can loosen and stones can fall out.

The mere act of playing a vinyl records damages it. It’s a terrible example.

All my college textbooks are unacceptably outdated except for basic foundational math and science, but today’s kids are actually taught basic arithmetic in more effective ways than how I learned it.

Even non-academic prose eventually needs to be translated or supplemented as vernacular changes. Religious texts come to mind: the Bible we know as the “King James Version” has been revised dozens of times. [1]

Cast iron skillets are items that fall into that 10% category of “can actually last a few lifetimes” but as I mentioned in my original comment, my point is that this is a rarity.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_James_Version, footnote 96

Give the original text a try: https://www.originalbibles.com/the-original-king-james-bible...

It’s decently readable, but archaic enough to be difficult to follow. Spellings like “yeere” instead of “year” are all over the place. And while this is 17th century text, you barely have to leave the 20th century to find prose that’s difficult to parse without updated language.

[ls15]

Yes, physical things degrade over time, but they don't just vanish without a warning when you update your phone.

Also, my grandparents had their rings until they died, my vinyl records from the 70ies play just fine and I have books from the 1950s that I would not deem outdated. The skillet will last for centuries maybe.

On the other hand, some of my favorite apps just stopped working without any warning after using them for three or four years, just because I updated my iPad. In one case I lost some of my work, because I could not open the file format anymore.

[dangus]

But of course time works differently for different objects, which is a main point of mine.

Modern consumer non-business smartphones aren’t even 20 years old as a concept.

Imagine getting an Apple II and expecting application compatibility with a Power Macintosh from the 90s. That’s the exact same timeframe we’re talking about in years, and that’s a massive change because computers weren’t all that mature as a technology in the 70s.

Sure, it is bad that App Store distribution introduces this problem. I’m not saying it’s not bad. However, I’m doubtful that future OS changes from here on out will introduce as many incompatibilities as the ones that took place during the time when smartphones were changing chip architecture to 64-bit, implementing new concepts surrounding sensor and device permissions, and other more fundamental shifts that would affect app compatibility.

On top of that, we’re also talking about a marketplace of apps with an average price of under a dollar.

There’s a damn good argument for PEBKAC (or PEBPAC) if you manage to spend $1000 in the App Store in a lifetime.