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Re: How long after release does Apple still provide "security updates"?

Cross-posted to 3 groups.

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I'm agnostic when it comes to Apple versus Android.
I only care about the truth.

I speak logically sensibly about all operating systems, not just iOS.

My ego isn't tied to a platform's marketing genius.
My ego is tied to gaining an adult understanding of the truth.

Given I don't defend any mothership to the death, no matter what, I took
Tom Elam up on his offer to get from the Android newsgroup the same kind of
statistics we've been gathering for this iOS newsgroup on full OS support. 
 *What is the reality of the Samsung 7-years of S-series support?*

Newsgroups: comp.mobile.android
Subject: What is the reality of the Samsung 7-years of S-series support?
Date: Sun, 12 Apr 2026 22:39:49 -0700
Message-ID: <10rhvj6$1c3i$1@nnrp.usenet.blueworldhosting.com>

It's complicated...

Q: What is the reality of the Samsung 7-years of S-series support? 
A: ?

Everyone banters about this word "support" but it has distinct meanings
that I'm confused about when it comes to what Samsung's promise means.

Samsung's "7-years" is especially confusing (to me at least) because of
their policy to "slow down" updates on older phones, even as they are still
under what appears to be "full support" and the typical policies of only
fully updating the latest Android version (& not earlier Android versions).

So what's Samsung's new S-series 7-years-of-support policy, really?

Q: How many levels of support does Samsung promise for new devices?
A: ?

Does Samsung's 7-year promise for the new S-series devices include... 
 a. All known bugfixes for all known bugs (in their control)
 b. All known security vulnerabilities for all known security flaws 
 b. All known enhancements for all known modules (in their control)
 c. Seven operating system updates (+ the original operating system)
 d. Any and all those fixes on a regular (i.e., monthly?) schedule?
 e. Or, does that schedule slow down over time but still promise all?
 f. Are the security fixes SIMULTANEOUS on all 7 of those Android upgrades?
 g. ? any others ?

With iOS, it's a lot easier to calculate because Apple has never in its
history ever simultaneously fully supported more than a single release.

All other OS vendors have simultaneously fully supported multiple releases.

As for the definition of "full support", we must make a point that fixing a
random bug in any OS is not full support. Full support means something well
documented by Apple but for other operating systems, it's not so easy.

But full support includes fixing every known bug that can be fixed.
An example of what is NOT full support is WinXP fixed bugs for 18 years.
1. Windows XP was released on October 25, 2001
2. The last known security update was released on May 14, 2019
3. That is 6,421 days, or 17.59 years of security updates after release

Also, we have to keep in mind that software support is not the same as
hardware support, where we calculated on the iOS newsgroup this summary:

The average iOS SOFTWARE support (this is per release only!)
 a. Sum = 25.52 years  (for completed versions)
 b. Count = 16 versions (have completed)
 c. Average = 26.14 / 18 = 1.59 years

As for the iOS HARDWARE full-security-updates (AFAIK)
 a. Longest full iOS support: 6.99 years (iPhone XS / XS Max)
 b. Shortest full iOS support: 2.37 years (iPhone 3G)
 c. Average full iOS support: 5.10 years

Given all these varying definitions of "support"... 

This question is asked so that we can, together, nail down what Samsung
actually means when they claim "7 years of "support" for the S-series.

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Thread

How long after release does Apple still provide "security updates"? Maria Sophia <mariasophia@comprehension.com> - 2026-03-27 15:13 -0400
  Having lost on his last thread... (was Re: How long after release does Apple still provide "security updates"? Alan <nuh-uh@nope.com> - 2026-03-27 12:25 -0700
  Re: How long after release does Apple still provide "security updates"? Maria Sophia <mariasophia@comprehension.com> - 2026-04-12 22:44 -0700
    Re: How long after release does Apple still provide "security updates"? Brock McNuggets <brock.mcnuggets@gmail.com> - 2026-04-13 16:39 +0000
    Re: How long after release does Apple still provide "security updates"? Maria Sophia <mariasophia@comprehension.com> - 2026-04-25 08:31 -0600
      Re: How long after release does Apple still provide "security updates"? Alan <nuh-uh@nope.com> - 2026-04-25 09:11 -0700
  Re: How long after release does Apple still provide "security updates"? Johnny LaRue <xxxxxx@yyyyyy.zzz> - 2026-05-05 22:22 -0400
    Re: How long after release does Apple still provide "security updates"? CrudeSausage <crude@sausa.ge> - 2026-05-06 10:02 -0400
    Re: How long after release does Apple still provide "security updates"? Jolly Roger <jollyroger@pobox.com> - 2026-05-06 20:46 +0000

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