The moral of the story is to simply not update older Apple devices. My brand new 4th gen iTouch was slow and buggy a year ago running iOS 5 right out of the box-I don't see why people think its worth the risk updating.
The big reveal of the article is that iOS6 is _not_ supported at all (and indeed won't install) on the iPad 1.
He goes on to say that as apps are updated to require version >= 6, your iPad 1 stuck at 5.x will become useless. I think his conclusion is bullshit (e.g. I can still word process on a 286 just as well as I could the day I got it - brick it is not).
>"If you update an app to an iOS 6 version in iTunes on your computer and then try to sync your iPad 1, the old version of the app will just get removed from your iPad 1. The home screen on my iPod Touch 1G is pretty barren."
Then don't sync your iOS 6 applications to your 1st-gen iPad, it only takes one checkbox in iTunes, which isn't even enabled by default. Problem solved.
You should be yelling at the developers who are requiring iOS 6. There are usually ways to incorporate new OS features, without requiring the new OS - kind of like html5 websites that are still visible and functional. It's laziness on the developers part to require a brand new OS.
You are over generalizing. That's only true if "new apps" only support iOS6. "new apps" that choose to support iOS5 will update and download just fine.
The vast majority of apps will still run on iOS5, and likely will for at least a few more updates (based on the developer's decision).
Running the latest and greatest software usually means running the latest and greatest hardware. That's what the Apple platform is geared towards. Software developers are incentivized to keep their apps running on the latest OS, and customers are incentivized to run the latest hardware. For people who care about that, this is a good platform choice.
If you want to use the same phone for 5 years, pick a different platform. Granted, you probably won't have the latest and greatest of anything. Not the latest and greatest hardware (your choice) and likely not the latest and greatest software (because what developer thinks they'll make money off of you?). Perhaps you are okay with that. It's probably a cheaper route.
The cheapest option doesn't always provide the most value. The most expensive option doesn't always either. The question is, for the price you are going to pay, are you going to get the best value. That equation is different for everyone and no platform can possibly make it work for everyone either.
I own a SPARCstation 5. It's got a whopping 95MB of RAM in it and a cool 25MHz processor (I think). It runs lots of software just fine, but I don't expect it to run the latest FPS.
Maybe you own an iPad1. It's got a whopping 256MB of RAM. That's not even 3x the amount of RAM my SS5 had. You should be amazed it did all the stuff it did, and continues to do.
You shouldn't expect it to run the latest and greatest OS, though.
My 4th gen white iPod Touch (shipped with iOS 5) is on iOS 6 now and i find it much smoother than iOS 5, apart from the App Store. The low RAM does get in the way when you switch to other apps and need to wait a few seconds for it to reinitialise, but other than that, it's not a problem. However, i do regret not buying the black version on iOS 4 and comparing the speed to iOS 5.
He goes on to say that as apps are updated to require version >= 6, your iPad 1 stuck at 5.x will become useless. I think his conclusion is bullshit (e.g. I can still word process on a 286 just as well as I could the day I got it - brick it is not).
Did you even read TFA?