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by kennywinker 372 days ago
1. No more security updates means using it is deeply risky 2. A closed ecosystem and App store bitrot combine to make installing anything new on it next to impossible. So, while it may be still useful as a pdf reader, it’s no longer useful as a general purpose computing device - but it COULD be if it was supported.

Make no mistake - most of these devices won’t be used as pdf readers - they will end up in the landfill. This is part of the business model, and we + the environment pay for it.
2 comments
sneak 372 days ago
Using a Mac without the App Store is simple; it’s not an iPad.

I have 7 Macs that I use to operate 3 businesses (and 2 more by way of consulting); precisely none of them use the App Store.

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kennywinker 372 days ago
Fair point. I was talking about iOS devices which are much more locked down than macs. As i see it there are two issues with no-longer supported macs:

1. The security issue i mentioned earlier applies to macs. It’s a bit easier to mitigate because an older mac can run a newer non-system-linked browser. But e.g. firefox is dropping support for 10.14 (released in 2018) this year (https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/firefox-users-macos-101...)

2. If you keep your os up to date as long as possible, new features will drag performance down to the point of being nearly unusable. So you’re forced to tradeoff between security+features and performance.

Of course, with a old mac you can always install linux to extend its lifespan… but that’s not thanks to apple

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Schiendelman 372 days ago
What do you mean, "no more security updates"?
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jagger27 372 days ago
Web browser engine, and OpenSSL (or equivalent) patches alone are the main concern in userspace. Those codebases are a constantly moving target. Look at the stream of CVEs and security patches that Apple publishes. Almost every bug affects every product because of how much code is shared up and down the stack.
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Schiendelman 372 days ago
You know they keep updating Safari and making security updates for old OSes for years, right?
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smaccona 372 days ago
Apple is definitely not the worst in this regard, but the most recent version of iOS to support the iPad 3rd generation (the device we are discussing which is being used as a PDF reader) is iOS 9.3.5 (a security/bugfix release on August 25, 2016 which supports the WiFi-only version of the iPad 3rd generation) or iOS 9.3.6 (also a bugfix release on July 22, 2019 which supports the WiFi+cellular version of the same device - specifically, this was a fix to keep GPS working).

The iPad 3rd generation was released in 2012, so the 2016 9.3.5 iOS release gave 4 years of security/bugfix support for the WiFi-only version of that device.

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Schiendelman 372 days ago
Sure, but there haven't been any security exploits in that version of iOS since then. It still works.
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kennywinker 372 days ago
Not sure what you’re meaning? A CVE like this: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2025-24201 found in 2025 impacts iOS versions before 18.3.1 (Safari and iOS are shipped together).

Which means there is a decent chance an iPad running 9.3.2 is vulnerable.

And there have been thousands of CVEs since 9.3.2. Most of low severity, but not all.

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