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Why is End of Life of an OS bad for an average user?

I get that there won’t be any security updates. So any problem found can be exploited. But how high is the chance for problems for an average user if you say, only browse some safe websites? If you have a pc you don’t really care much about, without any personal information? It feels like the danger is more theoretical than what will actually happen.

Or… are there any examples of people (not corpos) getting wrecked in the past by an eol OS?

cmeu ,

Practice good hygiene and it’ll be fine The trouble is that modern apps are forced to adopt features which depend on the new OS. Your old one will be incompatible, on purpose

The security aspect is secondary to the monetary growth and recuperation of investment in the new OS.

They spent all those monies to make it “AI” betting that you will eat it up and pay up. Now there will be significant pressure for them to “increase adoption” or someone gets fired

scutiger ,

Sure, if you’re actually being safe and following good security practices, the risk is low, but the average user does not follow all the best practices.

Kolanaki ,
@Kolanaki@yiffit.net avatar

Even if the only way to get a computer virus was to literally clap your hands together three times while repeating “I wish to get a computer virus,” some people would get a virus on their computer all time.

Evotech ,

It’ll probably be fine for a while.

Corporations still run windows XP / 2008 server, even 2003 server in cases. Add long as they are not exposed directly to the internet is fine.

PlexSheep ,

This is fine Datacenter burns

FeelzGoodMan420 ,

OP, don’t be stupid. Update your OS.

Drummyralf OP ,

I do, just wanted to know more about how bad stuff actually would be if you wouldn’t. Asked questions, learned a lot.

FeelzGoodMan420 ,

Fair enough. My apologies.

BlackPenguins ,

Unless it’s to Windows 11. Then stubbornly decline every week that it harasses you until the end of time.

FeelzGoodMan420 ,

Windows 11 is literally just a reskin of win10, but with added HDR functionality. There’s zero reason not to upgrade.

BlackPenguins ,

They almost snuck this dystopian nightmare into it. So yes, don’t trust any future windows upgrades from here on out. Who knows what they still have in it that we didn’t find out with this amount of backlash:

www.howtogeek.com/windows-11-recall-on-hold/

englislanguage ,

It seems like part of your thinking is: Why would a criminal invest effort to attack an average John Doe? The answer is: With a popular (widely used) operating system, the effort goes close to zero. Attacks can be automated, so they will be. Also, even if they are not interested in your data, they will be interested in other benefits they gain from controlling your computer:

  • Computing power e.g. for Bitcoin mining
  • Your internet connection to attack other computers via yours, taking your computer to hide their identity and location. This is commonly done as DDOS for blackmailing businesses or silencing websites. Or for sending spam or fake reviews.
  • Your identity. If they can get your name, they can order stuff on your name, which will get you a bad credit score or even criminal charges (identity theft)
  • Access to your local network. Many devices are easier to hack via local network access than from the internet. A criminal who took control of your computer could for example take over your “smart” appliances or WiFi printer.
FarraigePlaisteach ,

All talk about websites in the comments, but what about using just an email client and maybe ssh, rsync etc.

agressivelyPassive ,

Show me a single person that uses these tools exclusively and does not care about updating their machine.

And even then: ssh does have vulnerabilities. Email clients also usually render HTML, which means they have a browser engine under the hood.

NaibofTabr ,

There is a lot of crap crawling around on the internet that will infect any vulnerable machine it finds, completely automatically. There’s no human behind it trying to hack you specifically on purpose. A fair amount of it is orphaned - the original creator doesn’t have any control over it anymore. It’s just spreading on the network through anything it can infect.

If you connect a vulnerable machine to the network, it will get infected by something and end up continuing to spread this kind of crap.

lung ,
@lung@lemmy.world avatar

Really annoys me that Apple has a policy of no more updates after 7 years (or when they change the CPU architecture enough) — that’s hardcore planned obsolescence & I think it made their hardware quality worse over time (in addition to being unrepairable)

Super lame. While I’m ranting, their trade in program is a scam that doesn’t pay out almost ever. And otherwise they will “recycle it for free” making money Im sure

So yeah I’m pretty sure the era of MacBook superiority is over & imma buy a considerably higher spec System 76 laptop instead which comes with a repair bible for pretty much every scenario and is upgradeable

GregorGizeh ,

I am not using apple products myself any more, but 7 years of guaranteed support seems very reasonable, especially when our dumb ass economy runs on constant consumption and growth. They could just as easily make their devices break a week after the legally required warranty period is over, and you’d have to buy another

aasatru ,
@aasatru@kbin.earth avatar

It's not reasonable, but it is understandable. This is why FOSS is the only viable alternative for sustainable computing.

FarraigePlaisteach ,

Seeming reasonable in the context of the madness of constant growth is still not reasonable. I get what you mean, but we need to demand better of the ultra powerful if we want to see better in our lifetime.

Serinus ,

Seven years for a phone right now is pretty reasonable. For a laptop, it’s absolutely not.

lung ,
@lung@lemmy.world avatar

No but you see, there’s no reason a newer osx can’t run on their older hardware most of the time. You can install new windows on an old laptop if it has the specs. It’s not like they lost the drivers or whatever. It’s a choice they made, cutting off users from security updates & newer apps & leaving them with a vulnerable device

TrickDacy ,

Apple is trash but this is like the least trashy thing they do honestly

bjoern_tantau ,
@bjoern_tantau@swg-empire.de avatar

Ransomware usually doesn’t care whether it’s hitting a corporation or a real user. Even a “safe” website might serve unsafe ads. I have seen that a thousand times. It was just harmless history stealing in my case. But depending on what bugs will be found in the future it could be desastrous. And nobody at the ad network would see it because they would be using updated software.

So, it is only theoretical until it is not. Then it is too late.

limerod ,

Can you elaborate more about this “harmless history stealing” bit and how did you find it? Also, was the OS outdated in your case?

Like a sane person I use a system wide adblocker (Adguard) and unlock-origin in firefox. I also disable 3rd party iframes by default to reduce the crap being loaded by default on all my devices.

bjoern_tantau ,
@bjoern_tantau@swg-empire.de avatar

I meant that thing where it redirects you to another site and makes it impossible to go back to the site you were on.

limerod ,

Hmm, I thought modern day browsers had protection against redirect and history poisoning attacks. Guess not in all.

bjoern_tantau ,
@bjoern_tantau@swg-empire.de avatar

Was a few years ago.

slazer2au ,

only browse some safe websites

Drive-by downloads exist. They can come from “safe sites” via an ad network and if you are running an EOL OS, chances are you are running an EOL web browser with some well known remote code exploit

rickdg ,
@rickdg@lemmy.world avatar

The average user starts on their usual websites and doesn’t even remember clicking on a link that leads elsewhere.

RightHandOfIkaros ,

Security bad when not updated anymore.

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