On 28/Jan/16 17:27, Stephen Satchell wrote:
It depends on whether the exact model is being sold after a couple of years, and not superseded by new models. This is the case in the wireless router world, where product churn leaves last year's model an orphan when it comes to updates.
Display manufacturers are pushing new products every year. A product you buy today will be reasonably obsolete 24x months later (by obsolete I mostly mean no more software updates for it). The hope is that if display manufacturers move to more a "common" OS platform, then feature support such as IPv6 and others could be supported on "obsolete" models as long as newer releases of the OS still support the hardware in the older displays (depending on the level of independence between the OS and the hardware vendor, or the openness of the hardware vendor to allow users do what they please with supported OS's). For now, that looks like WebOS, Tizen, e.t.c. Devices that last a little longer (such as game consoles) will receive major updates in the first few years of sale. When the next gaming console is released, the older ones will still be relevant, but then updates will taper to useless things like "disabling of this with Facebook" or "changed the default splash screen". Nothing to improve the fundamental usability of the actual device such as IPv6.
Not so much in the OS world, only because the OS doesn't churn that quickly. But look at Windows and its history on support being withdrawn long before the product is useless (or the "new" product is worthless, causing people to hang back on upgrades).
True, but with Windows, you don't have to change your computer in order to support the newer features. You just have to upgrade to the newer Windows release. My home PC which I bought in 2008 when Windows XP was the thing is now running Windows 10, happily, with full IPv6 support. You can't say the same for hardware made with proprietary OS's that will not get future support because newer hardware is now shipping. Much like the majority of TV's today, as well as the home CPE's you speak of. Mark.