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Cake day: June 8th, 2023

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  • When was the last 4yr window on a computer? I think the ati 2011 15” mbp got dropped fast af but thats the last real short one I remember. I haven’t dealt extensively with the touchbar models though.

    The m1 air looks to be another 2012 mbp 12”. It would surprise me if they cut it off at 7 years. Although that decision seems to have been driven by the enterprise install base and who knows if that’s still what it once was.

    I think the reason why mobile os support windows are apples thing on computers is because they don’t have a separate business line. Iirc xps used to be dells enthusiast brand and now it’s part of the business line.

    Thinking more about it, the core line of processors was a real stumble for intel because they were really good and lasted forever and manufacturers had to start pushing updates to fix realtek and qualcomm chip problems or get blamed for shit not working or being supported.

    Also, this is kinda tangential because the op is asking about firmware support and hardware availability and firmware support is not as important on macs and they have incredible second hand hardware markets.



  • The Apple support window is pretty predictable. You get about seven years from device release to no os updates.

    It used to be that they didn’t talk about it and it was kind of a “he who has eyes, let him see” situation.

    Of course, we’re talking hardware here so that’s sort of neither here nor there.

    The enterprise dell experience is indeed very good all around. I’d even include hp in the pile if I had any experience with em. Their scopes used to be decent.





  • Generally if you want long support windows you go for big boring brands’ simplest business class laptops. Or Apple.

    Small companies an make a commitment to support, but they often have neither the money, customer base or manpower to follow through when the going gets tough.

    I have found that popularity is a better predictor of spare part availability than any commitment from a company of any size. When they stop selling parts, there’s always the second hand market. When that dries up there’s always third party parts.

    Firmware updates are one of the places that dell, Lenovo and Apple shine. Because of their customers expectations they tend to release new updates and drivers as functionality expectations or security conditions change.






  • That’s not a civil war though, that’s stoichastic terrorism at least and militia violence at most. I, uh, was just in a disaster in the us where militias were said to have been run off by the national guard and local law enforcement.

    It’s still scary, but it’s not civil war.

    To give you an idea of how common what you’re describing used to be, when 9/11 happened people who hadn’t already gotten the word from the federal government were blaming it on domestic terrorist organizations and individuals. We had just come off of a decade of federal law enforcement torching Waco, sniping ruby ridge, package bombs, federal building bombs (including wtc!) and school shootings there at the end.

    The harmless nut job was such a common idea that the Feds had to really struggle against it when they bungled Waco and ruby ridge.

    There’s been thirty years of domestic counter terror training to deal with just this type of situation. Fifty if you count the bender mienhoff group in Europe as the start.

    You may see Waco 2.0 but you won’t see a civil war.


  • No and you should not listen to people who think it could.

    A civil war is large scale armed conflict between groups vying for the levers of power. In the case of the American civil war it was over slavery and came to war because there was no mechanism to integrate the south’s elites into the power structures of the north’s or vice versa and the material bases of those two groups power structures were in opposition.

    What two groups would fight an American civil war nowadays? Democrats and republicans? They serve the same masters. We are witnessing propaganda bent to the ends of integrating members of one group into another.

    Separatist militias? Not only would that not be a civil war, we saw how the fbi handled them in the 90s.

    Corporations? Why would they do that? Government already does the unprofitable things they want and does them how they want them.

    Separatist states? It’s against the economic interests of the very people who would make up the elite class of the new nation of Texas to submit their borders to taxes and tariffs.

    Workers? That’s a revolution, not a civil war.

    If someone wants you to fear modern civil war they’re trying to control you.

    If someone makes art about a modern civil war they’re trying to tell you about something else on the sly, like with zombies.