Netflix NOC? VPN Mismarked?

Mark Tinka mark.tinka at seacom.mu
Thu Jan 28 16:23:44 UTC 2016



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 years, and not superseded by new models.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 withdrawn long before the product is useless (or the "new" product is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.




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