More and more of this planned obsolescence?
I seriously dislike it when people use the term "planned obsolescence".
They make it sound like it's some sort of grand conspiracy against consumers.
Manufacturers don't release something while being fully aware that the upgrade is already scheduled for a certain time.
This happened not because the OS writers "planned" it that way, but rather it's simply because technology is an ever advancing field.
That's just the way it goes.
The more advancements there are, the more difficult it is to maintain legacy software and systems.
You can't put a band-aid on something to make it work just like the new stuff all the time.
You can't continue to fully back an OS that has reached its peak and has already had two successors.
Eventually, legacy support must be dropped.
Most operating systems were good for about 4-5 years maximum.
OS X 10.4 was released on April 29, 2005... over 4.5 years ago.
Its time has come to an end.
The faster technology advances, the shorter that time frame becomes.
If one day technological advancement suddenly screeched to a halt... would consumers be happy?
No, of course not.
They would demand more and more.
Would it help if technology simply "slowed down" a bit?
No, of course not.
The consumer is an insatiable beast and would demand faster updates.
However, so long as the older systems still provide their users with the same reliability and functionality they did on day one, they are not obsolete.
I still have a single-processor 1.6 Ghz Power Mac G5 running 10.4.11 Tiger.
It still does exactly what I need it to.
Yes, it's older... but it is far from being obsolete.
If the day ever came that my current setup couldn't successfully perform for me... I would get a newer computer.
Until that day, my system and OS are not obsolete.