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Ask HN: Any legal way against forced software upgrades and feature removal

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Re: Ask HN: Any legal way against forced software upgrades and feature removal

#71

Post by bruce511 »

bb88 wrote: post #60
duffyjp wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's definitely a trend of FOSS products and older trivially priced products being bought up by companies that re-release in subscription models. So frustrating. I always get recommendations on the Play Store for World of Goo, an amazing game from 2008 that you can now only play if you're a Netflix subscriber. The 1.7 star rating has convinced no suits that that might not be what people what. On iPhone I used to u…

This sucks. I honestly think that software should have a 25 year copyright at most, and the source code should be released after copyright expires. So windows 95 source code would have been released in 2020.

Wouldn't help you. Source code without the tools, and environment to build it is useless.

Plus, source code from some random thing from 25 years ago is usually lost. Certainly I don't have source code for a bunch of things I wrote 25 years ago. And for the things I do have, good luck finding a machine that'll read my floppy disks.

Re: Ask HN: Any legal way against forced software upgrades and feature removal

#72

Post by torstenvl »

latexr wrote: post #70
torstenvl wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your claim was that "at least on macOS and iOS they never forced anyone to update to the new versions" In support of that you have exclusively discussed 1Password 7 and 1Password 8. You cite the fact that you're still on 1Password 7 as "clear[]" evidence that this never happened.

The OP said: > For example 1Password deliberately crippled perfectly fine password sync for users Which happened from 1Password 7 to 8. So yes, of course I mentioned that transition. That is the new version. But that’s the same for all previous ones; they never forced you to upgrade, old versions didn’t stop working on their own. They might have stopped being compatible with certain OS upgrades, but that’s not delibe…

It simply isn't true that the only breakage ever in the history of 1Password happened between 7 and 8. As a result, it simply isn't true that you can assume that is the only transition under discussion. You have become hyperfixated on an issue of utter irrelevance to the broader topic.

Bottom line: if your claim is never then you don't get to arbitrarily pick your two comparison points.

Password sync was crippled within 1Password 7 (Google seems to indicate specifically with 1Password 7.8 but I don't personally recall) by way of an automatic iOS app update and removal of the previous version of the desktop browser extension. Subsequently, there were limitations that didn't previously exist on using passwords from Dropbox vaults. If you wanted to continue using that functionality, you were forced to upgrade to a cloud-based vault.

Re: Ask HN: Any legal way against forced software upgrades and feature removal

#74

Post by nephanth »

Etheryte wrote: post #38
albert180 wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've needed 0 Seconds of hacking since using Fedora for 2 years. Linux has evolved in the last 14 Years

I can easily trust my older relatives to do fine on macOS, Linux would be either painful or more realistically a no go.

Depends on how old they are. My grandpa used to run on a linux pc we gave him.

All he needed was a web browser, an email client and a word processor. And that's it. So Lubuntu did the job perfectly.

Obviously more expectations may be harder to meet

Re: Ask HN: Any legal way against forced software upgrades and feature removal

#75

Post by fouric »

kramerger wrote: post #55
Etheryte wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can easily trust my older relatives to do fine on macOS, Linux would be either painful or more realistically a no go.

On the contrary, I let older relatives use Linux so I don't need to support macos and windows constantly breaking. In 5 years I've had 2 family support calls: one to setup a new WiFi on a Chromebook and one for turning the Chromebook on and off.

I've tried to get multiple non-family members set up with Linux and have failed, with constant bugs from Linux, and confusion from the family members. Windows is far more reliable and easier for them to use.

This clearly invalidates your point, and supports "Linux would be either painful or more realistically a no go", because it's obviously not enough for some relatives to be able to easily use Linux - most of them need to be able to. The fact that you have more capable-than-normal relatives or more Linux-friendly-than-normal hardware is irrelevant to the fact that most people do not.

Re: Ask HN: Any legal way against forced software upgrades and feature removal

#76

Post by fouric »

soco wrote: post #65
Etheryte wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can easily trust my older relatives to do fine on macOS, Linux would be either painful or more realistically a no go.

I installed Mint on two older relatives computers and they're both fine with it. They also do only browse, youtube, maybe open a PDF or edit a Word (rather, let someone else edit on their machine). Zero complaints for this use case.

This is not the case for the majority of people or computers.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39130904

Re: Ask HN: Any legal way against forced software upgrades and feature removal

#77

Post by fouric »

nephanth wrote: post #74
Etheryte wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can easily trust my older relatives to do fine on macOS, Linux would be either painful or more realistically a no go.

Depends on how old they are. My grandpa used to run on a linux pc we gave him. All he needed was a web browser, an email client and a word processor. And that's it. So Lubuntu did the job perfectly. Obviously more expectations may be harder to meet

One of my relatives is in her early 20's and has a large amount of difficulty using Linux (even for relatively simple needs like what you describe above), despite dozens of "support interactions" and assistance. Other relatives are in their 40's and failed to use it as well.

It's not enough for some people to be able to use Linux - if you want to recommend it for general use, it has to be usable for almost everyone.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39130904

Re: Ask HN: Any legal way against forced software upgrades and feature removal

#79

Post by albert180 »

throw10920 wrote: post #61
albert180 wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've needed 0 Seconds of hacking since using Fedora for 2 years. Linux has evolved in the last 14 Years

Every single one of the 6 desktop-class devices that I've used over the past decade have had multiple issues running Linux, some of which I was never able to resolve. This soundly refutes your point, because it's not enough for Linux to run well on one computer - it has to run well on most of them.

I run it on a ThinkPad T470, I guess the Overlap between People Run Linux on a Laptop and it's a ThinkPad is pretty big

Re: Ask HN: Any legal way against forced software upgrades and feature removal

#80

Post by albert180 »

fouric wrote: post #75
kramerger wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On the contrary, I let older relatives use Linux so I don't need to support macos and windows constantly breaking. In 5 years I've had 2 family support calls: one to setup a new WiFi on a Chromebook and one for turning the Chromebook on and off.

I've tried to get multiple non-family members set up with Linux and have failed, with constant bugs from Linux, and confusion from the family members. Windows is far more reliable and easier for them to use. This clearly invalidates your point, and supports "Linux would be either painful or more realistically a no go", because it's obviously not enough for some relatives to be able to easily use Linux - most of them…

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