In reply to a post by MCM:

It's a pity that Apple seemingly leave their users somewhat stranded.

The support cycle of the original iPad Mini (3 years) was rather short compared to other devices, because the hardware inside governed the cycle, the iPad 2 managed 5 years. Compared to desktop and laptop PCs, this is a very low amount of life, primarily because of RAM limitations. Similar to some Android models (with locked bootloaders) you unfortunately cannot install a third party OS on the Apple hardware.

Original mini was launched in Oct 2012, and in Oct 2013 only the 16GB was on sale, which stopped in 2015. So the device had a 3 year on sale life. The Mini used the A5 SoC with 512MB of RAM. It launched with iOS 6.0.1 and was updated to iOS 9.3.5 (WiFi) and 9.3.6 (Cellular). The A5 SoC was also used by the iPad, also with 512 MB RAM. The A5 SoC stopped being supported with iOS 9.3.5 and so the iPad 2, and the original iPad Mini (which was the same machine in a smaller size) were both discontinued. The iPad 2 was launched in 2011, and the last update was in 2016, so it had 5 years life.

The Mac used to be more open, but now you are likely to only get 5 years life. Contrast with a laptop running Windows (which could run Win10) or Linux, which easily do 9 or 10 years life if you don't mind them slowing down.

I've just checked on an old Win 7 Pro SP1 system and find that is is offered Edge which is a bit of a surprise.

The majority of the development work was complete when Win7 was end of life'd, so they completed the testing cycle and released.

_{edit - fix typo!}

Edited by jchamier (Tue 01-Sep-20 19:58:10)

You mean I can expect my 20MB HDD to fail? LOL!

I'd better back it up to my 5.25 FDD

So your saying that iPad Mini had 4 OS versions - the original plus 3 updates. They would have also continued security updates for 9 after 10 was released for a time. Compared to many Android devices that may get no major OS updates then that is pretty good. The best on Android is normally 3 major updates and so matches the iPad. It is the name of the games for smartphone and tablets - Apple usually are a little better than Android for supporting older tablet/smartphone hardware (sometimes shortened when they release a "budget" devices using a non-current chip).

If you buy a £400 laptop then chances are it won't last 10 years of "major" Windows OS releases. If you spend a £1000+ then it is more likely to be supported longer.

In reply to a post by hk11:

You mean I can expect my 20MB HDD to fail? LOL!
I'd better back it up to my 5.25 FDD

I had a 5.25 FDD sitting on my book shelf for years, but it went in 2018. I have a lot of 3.5" discs around, but I do actually have a working 3.5" USB FDD!

My first HDD was 20MB.... in the early 90s.....

quote=4657175]So your saying that iPad Mini had 4 OS versions - the original plus 3 updates. They would have also continued security updates for 9 after 10 was released for a time. Compared to many Android devices that may get no major OS updates then that is pretty good. The best on Android is normally 3 major updates and so matches the iPad. It is the name of the games for smartphone and tablets - Apple usually are a little better than Android for supporting older tablet/smartphone hardware (sometimes shortened when they release a "budget" devices using a non-current chip). That "continued updates" wasn't as good as it is today with 12 getting updates, however the 9.x.x releases were mostly security.

If you buy a £400 laptop then chances are it won't last 10 years of "major" Windows OS releases. If you spend a £1000+ then it is more likely to be supported longer.

I've seen the latter. Apple's 2012 laptops are no longer supported for Big Sur the macOS this year. However I know of a 2011 laptop with Core i3 CPU that is running Win 10 2004, and likely will get next years update. Yes it has had an SSD replacing the HDD in the last 9 years