This isn't really just an Apple mentality though. I have all kinds of old electronics and devices from Google, Samsung, Intel, WD, etc. that all fit this exact same description.

If you've ever tried to run a hardware business (or really any business), you know that it is not financially sound to continue to support old devices that have been superceded (sometimes more than once) by newer products that consumers are currently spending money on.

We can debate if this is the way things should be, the aspect of whether you truly "own" things, software escrow, and on and on. But the phenomenon itself is in no way unique to Apple. If anything, I have found that the usable lifespan of Apple hardware is, on average, longer than the usable lifespan of other name-brand electronics in similar categories.

I always thought it was strange how intolerant Homebrew is of users who are not surfing the bleeding edge.

I held out using MacPorts for ages, but there came a point when I just could not reasonably expect to find the software I needed on MacPorts, but could on Homebrew, and so I switched. I wish Homebrew hadn't won that particular mindshare war. Moving from MacPorts to Homebrew felt like downgrading from an actual package manager to a duct-taped shell script.

> Also, because third party app developers largely align with Apple's philosophy, less and less 3rd party software even works on my computers anymore.

I think it's more about 3rd party app developers attempting to improve their products and stay relevant.

If Apple releases a new framework or API that would make a developer’s app better, but it requires macOS 14 or later, are they not supposed to incorporate it?

I've noticed lots of 3rd party developers keep older versions of their apps available for older macOS versions.

> I think it's important to highlight Apple's mentality: That old devices are dead to them, and their pretending they don't even exist anymore.

Sorry but the HomePod wasn't "killed" just because they upgraded from gen 1 to gen 2. Gen 1 HomePod literally just got a software update a month ago with another on the way. The iPhone X wasn't "killed" just because they released the iPhone 11. This list is egregiously version-centric for things where it makes no sense.

Apple did recently approve drivers for both nvidia and amd, but not for gaming purposes.

Apple supported OpenGL plenty, just that the world moved. Apple created metal, shortly after Vulkan was created.

"They could support it if they wanted to" is almost a tautology. Of course they could. But then they have to support another thing. They are on the hook when something goes wrong.

Size, but not form.

Best form goes to the Neo, current Air, or 2015 MBP.

They should be offering a 12” Air now.

Fellow user here. It still surprises me on durability and usefulness. Its small size fits into my trousers’ pockets and even if it falls out, it won’t brake like a Samsung.

I think so, Macs can run software written for Android, iOS, Mac, Windows and Linux, everything else is incapable of running the iOS and Mac stuff. Virtualizing macOS from a Linux or Windows sucks for arbitrary reasons, and both macOS and iOS are missing a compatibility shim like WINE.