Why are they doing this?
Because supporting 15 year old cheap consumer products is a waste of energy.
It actually isn't. Causing people to replace stuff that still works is a waste of energy.
Intel desktop board BIOS update end-of-life
51–60 of 163 posts
Re: Intel desktop board BIOS update end-of-life
#52"Intel to remove all BIOS updates for their Desktop boards " seems to be a more correct headline?
For their 10+ year old End Of Life boards.
DH67BL launched in Q1/'11 for LGA1155, the last BIOS got released in 2018-10-23 (I think security fix), and it shows the same notice, so I kindly disagree:
https://downloadcenter.intel.com/download/28273/BIOS-Update-...
Re: Intel desktop board BIOS update end-of-life
#53I can't believe this. All these years I've been recommending Intel products because of their long term support. I know these boards are legacy, but does it really cost them that much to host the files for occasional downloaders? One would have thought they'd tread carefully after so many recent PR hits, but I guess not.
Is 15 years not long term enough support for you?
[deleted]
Re: Intel desktop board BIOS update end-of-life
#54"Intel to remove all BIOS updates for their Desktop boards " seems to be a more correct headline?
For their 10+ year old End Of Life boards.
Given that 10+ year old boards are still perfectly serviceable for many applications and are still in widespread use all over the globe they may be End Of Life for Intel but that does not mean they are magically and suddenly all gone. The degree to which Intel stuff has proven to be insecure over the last couple of years would warrant at least some consideration for people who are still running that older hardware, especially if it does not cost Intel much to keep that hardware supported.
Re: Intel desktop board BIOS update end-of-life
#55Earlier quoted context omitted.
That doesn't make a lot of sense to me since we're talking about EOL software that won't receive patches in the first place. I can't think of any good reason to get rid of that besides maybe "we're revamping the website and can't be bothered to port that bit".
If you read more in the thread, Intel is also removing old gpu and nic drivers for currently supported hardware. There’s no other reason to do that other than to obstruct patch diffing.
Wouldn't simply not providing old versions of the driver achieve the same thing then?
And beyond that, what's the logic? "We don't want black hats to diff our patches so we make sure that the legit users can't get patched firmwares in the first place"? Doesn't really add up to me. People with enough knowledge, time and resources to pull such an attack will manage to get the binaries one way or the other.
I still think that incompetence and laziness are more likely causes.
Re: Intel desktop board BIOS update end-of-life
#56Earlier quoted context omitted.
That doesn't make a lot of sense to me since we're talking about EOL software that won't receive patches in the first place. I can't think of any good reason to get rid of that besides maybe "we're revamping the website and can't be bothered to port that bit".
Drive sales of hardware. If you can't get drivers you have to purchase something you can get drivers for.
That's pretty shortsighted then. The only thing this will do is drive those sales to the competition. The people who are using this hardware are likely not doing so by choice so if you cut them off and force them to re-invest they will not be bitten the same way twice.
Re: Intel desktop board BIOS update end-of-life
#57Headline is unsubstantiated and false. Intel is no longer serving BIOS updates for at least one product that was released 16 years ago and last manufactured 15 years(!) ago. You've had 15 years to make copies of the BIOS files for your needs, and you can still use the original BIOS on your device. Nothing to see here.
Re: Intel desktop board BIOS update end-of-life
#58This is why projects like coreboot are very important. Open source doesn't depend on someone's marketing itch.
Re: Intel desktop board BIOS update end-of-life
#59Now if I was an AMD exec I'd suddenly announce that "all versions of all our drivers for all hardware on all platforms will be available forever".
Don't hold your breath. AMD has been terrible at marketing themselves against Intel for nearly 2 decades.
I feel like there was a period of time around 2000 when they had some edge, at least with gamers. Soon after that they disappeared for a while and only now i'm hearing about them again.
Re: Intel desktop board BIOS update end-of-life
#60HP made the same thing for desktop printers. Want to download a windows xp driver for an older printer (which is perfectly fine)?? not gonna happen from the hp site...