Is Apple being irresponsible?
 

The May 2017 global ransomware attack showed that for one reason or another many users prefer to use older operating systems or OS versions. They do not need more features and gimmicks. All they require is occasional security updates to keep their computers and networks safe. A number of large public bodies were using Windows XP. Microsoft stopped supporting Windows XP some years ago in an attempt to force users to buy a more recent Microsoft OS. Microsoft disregarded the fact that XP provided all the functionality needed by these users.

MS put its profits ahead of common sense customer service and ongoing after-sales support. In view of the looming public relations disaster MS belatedly put out security patches for older Windows versions, including XP. Better late than never!

In comparison Apple has done nothing for users of older versions of Mac OSX. Like many users I use OSX 10.9.5 Mavericks. I do not need any more features or gimmicks. I would just like to see Mavericks kept as secure as possible. This should be the minimum level of ongoing support provided by Apple. I regularly run Software Update but have not received a security update for about a year. It seems Apple has abandoned users of older versions of Mac OSX. This was confirmed in an email dated 31 May 2017 from Sophos advising that Sophos Home antivirus is ending support for OSX 10.8 and 10.9 because Apple abandoned Mountain Lion users in 2015 and Mavericks users in 2016.

Apple is failing to show the same level of responsibility and integrity as MS (admittedly only under pressure) has shown. Of its own initiative Apple should have followed the MS example. Instead Software Update still shows no security updates for Mavericks users as of 1 July 2017. It is shameful that Apple management has such a low level of integrity and business ethics that it fails to do what is right of its own initiative and only does so when forced into it by a regulatory body. It is not alone in this as shown by the recent EU €2.4 billion fine and associated regulatory corrections imposed on Google. (It is interesting to note that most of the abusive multi-national companies are American and that it is the EU that is standing up to them and supporting the general public victims, worldwide as well as its own citizens.)

Do you agree that Apple should be providing security updates for users of OSX from Leopard forwards? If so, please forward your views and request for this to European Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager:

[email protected]
European Commission
Rue de la Loi / Wetstraat 200
1049 Brussels
Belgium

Whilst I agree with you up to a point (and still have a perfectly good Windows XP desktop at home), how long, given what you pay for the software, should it be supported? Car manufacturers are only mandated by law to supply parts for a car for 10 years, and the pace of car change is glacially slow compared to computers.
Maybe there should be such a law for computers , but it'd have to be way less than 10 years I think.

Once upon a time I used to build the entire BSD package repos from source code every 2 weeks. It aint for the faint-hearted as lots of things could and would go wrong with using the latest and greatest for 3 code streams (latest major release, latest major -1, and latest major -2).

The issue with updates for old releases is less to do with building it, and more to do with testing it. Often with these older releases there is nobody around to fix any problems with them.

I still run WinXP on a 32bit PC that is not connected to anything as it's set up beautifully and has served me well for a while. It doesn't need anything more done to it for the role it performs.

If you want network connectivity then unfortunately you have to dance along to the tune that goes with having it.

Why would you appeal to the EU's competition Commissioner for this? This is not a competition law issue. Apple certainly does not have a dominant position on the market.

IIRC updates to OS X have been free for some years. The only limitation being the hardware's ability to use it. My 'ancient' 2009 iMac is running the latest version of OS X. My Apple IIc sitting in a box the basement cannot.