I wish large influential bodies like the EU would actually go as far as to make this law; once a product is no longer supported, an update should be released that allows full access to its boot components, to allow consumers to be able to develop or flash custom firmware for it at any time

No computer chip is sacred enough to demand full industrial secrecy, especially when you're selling those chips to consumers, that's not secrecy, that's artificial scarcity, and in some ways, planned obsolescence

All of this wastes the abilities and capacities of the high-tech fabs we've built to churn out chips, the only EOL destination it sees is a dispassionate throw into a garbage dump, literally the most wasteful you could ever be with a high-energy product like this

Not to mention the incredible disservice and apathy that does to the sourcing of the materials, which often come at high cost, and not just money

Literally everything about this makes me angry

@miki let me put it like this:

i dont care.

i dont care if they're going to "have trouble" complying to such a rule. fuck them.

hiding behind third-party chips is not an excuse.

when devices go out of production and are not supported anymore, they should be opened up, no matter how many exclusivity contracts the company has made, because that just gives them an out.

capitalism is not an excuse.

@miki @koherecoWatchdog @ShadowJonathan which is totally fine, but that's why we _require_ regulation so that we organize certain things to minimize the damage we as consumers or humanity as a whole do.

Relying on "the market" for "things just getting perfect" is on the other hand stupid, same as "but the people don't care about this".

We should have politics so they explain why doing unpopular things in order to achieve higher goals is critical (like protecting our planet).