When Microsoft announced it was ending support for Windows 10 last week, about 40% of all Windows users faced limited options.
When Microsoft announced it was ending support for Windows 10 last week, about 40% of all Windows users faced limited options.
While some of those users can upgrade to Windows 11, hundreds of millions of devices don’t meet the technical requirements.
Those users might be wondering what else they can do besides throwing away their current device and buying a new one or risking running outdated software on it.
The tech conglomerate faced backlash from environmental and cybersecurity experts after informing Windows users that it would cease providing updates for Windows 10.
These experts have warned that rendering hundreds of millions of devices practically useless will worsen the ever-growing problem with electronic waste (e-waste) and leave users who can’t upgrade vulnerable to cybersecurity threats.
Researchers from Georgia Tech’s School of Interactive Computing (SIC) and School of Cybersecurity and Privacy (SCP) echo those concerns.
Forcing users to replace their devices means that up to 240 million old devices, according to one analysis, will inevitably end up in landfills.
„The problem of e-waste raises the question of why and how these technologies become obsolete“, said Cindy Lin, a Stephen Fleming Early Career Assistant Professor in SIC.
Lin studies data structures and environmental governance in Southeast Asia and the U.S.
„Scholarship in human-computer interaction (HCI) on repair reveals that many of these technologies suffer from planned obsolescence“, she said.
