Great! Put the old versions of Windows into software escrow so we can keep older hardware working past the 2-5 year window currently in place. This would let us fix bugs, patch security problems, etc.
Doing this is great marketing for them. Companies like Apple are insistent on locking down their hardware. Microsoft could use this as a marketing tactic to say how they’re environmentally friendly and shit on the other tech companies. It would generate goodwill, and allow them to push their proprietary services on their hardware more easily since people can maintain it longer.
I had thought repairing modern electronic devices was going to be near impossible coming from my early experiences in the 1970s, and although a lot of the repairs involve swapping a card or whole board, others are simply board-level repairs of blown capacitors, bad connectors, like charging ports, and such on things like iPads. I now have a complete microelectronics setup and I have repaired a bunch of stuff. It's my hobby, not business. The real block is access to schematics and parts. Apple doesn't release schematics legally for purchase until they are a few generations behind, so fixers buy illegal copies. Non-standard parts, like custom chips, are also controlled or not easy to find. I primarily setup my microelectronics bench to make my own stuff, not repair stuff. I owned my first cheap microscope in 1972, but my workbench scope has opened up a whole other world for me.
I dunno, Lenovo managed to make a very competent Surface Pro competitor in the X1 Tablet 2nd gen - and yet despite its svelte construction, it unscrews, and within you will find a removable M.2 SSD. I don't really buy this notion that repairability is a necessary sacrifice on the altar of portability. Sure, sometimes you have to solder components that it would be nice to have socketed - but there's no excuse for gluing things together so you can't even change the battery. Screws aren't any thicker than glue.
Typical Microsoft marketing lie, as in last version of windows, windows 10 mobile devices, windows support and so on. Oh wait, they hire consultant to synergise efforts in OKR and drive innovation in right to repair domain according to management indicatives! That’s will be success for sure.
Surfaces are highly custom (and badly) engineered and sold in (tens of) thousands. Nobody wish or able to repair them. Nobody even wish to repair new xboxxses.
Macs are sold in hundreds millions and getting fixed easily, despite “evil” apple.
Xbox optical drive is crypto locked to console, if drive dies and you are outside warranty window your console is finished. Right to repair champions indeed.
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[ 3.5 ms ] story [ 35.6 ms ] threadThanks, Microsoft!
(A comment on the website discussing MS Surface devices)