Kobo & planned obsolescence

[mr-lucas]

Originally Posted by davidfor

The firmware update does not change what happens when you do a factory reset. In fact, the point of the factory reset should be to wipe any firmware updates.

And in answer to the question, "How do I update my Kobo Mini's software?" Kobo has:


Followed by the instructions.

The only thing missing on the page is an explicit statement that this has to be done if you do a factory reset.

I don't understand yet what you're saying. The Kobo instructions clearly say that you should perform the firmware update in order to prevent issues later on with a factory reset. However, you say that these things are unrelated.

Are we mixing up factory reset and manual reset? (https://help.kobo.com/hc/en-us/articles/360017605154). FYI: I tried both methods.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by mr-lucas

I don't understand yet what you're saying. The Kobo instructions clearly say that you should perform the firmware update in order to prevent issues later on with a factory reset. However, you say that these things are unrelated.

I disagree with your conclusion, but, it might be because I understand how the firmware updates and a factory reset works. To the best of my knowledge, the firmware updates have only ever touched the restore partition once. (That was for the N905 Touch, and only for some of them. And I know because I had one and worked with Kobo to get it working.) There is nothing in the final firmware release for the Mini that does this.

No matter what is said on that page, you will need to use the Kobo desktop to do the update after a factory reset. Or install the update package manually.

Are we mixing up factory reset and manual reset? (https://help.kobo.com/hc/en-us/articles/360017605154). FYI: I tried both methods.

No, because they are the same thing. At the top of that page, it says:

After a manual factory reset, you'll need to set up and sync your eReader again.

The two sets of instructions achieve the same thing. Or at least they do on the firmware version you are running. Recent firmware only wipes the book partition when you do the "Factory reset" from the Device information page. And there are at least two other ways to do a factory reset.

For the record, I did not know that pushing that button in the Mini did a factory reset. For the other devices with a pinhole reset button, they just restart the device.

[Cootey]

Originally Posted by salamanderjuice

They are better than Android, but an iPhone 5 released in 2012 the same year as the mini is no longer supported either. Also every Mac model released in 2012 is not officially compatible with Big Sur either. And Monterey is dumping some Macs as from 2015 like the 2015 12" MacBook and mid-2015 iMac 5K which ironically came out after the iPhone 6s.

Apple's computers run practically forever. Until last weekend, I was running a family website with a 2006 iMac. I still use the Mac, but I serve the site on an rPi now (I'm still using the legacy iWeb software to manage the site). Since Macs last so long, however, they do run afoul of Apple's aggressive software updates. For instance, I can't install a lot of software on my old iMac. Safari can't even access many (or most) web pages since it's so outdated, so I use Chrome. Apple users tend to quickly adopt new OS releases compared to other platforms which straggle more. Apple tends to have a different philosophy than other platforms regarding legacy devices. On one hand, Apple doesn't hold back abandoning legacy support if the new shiny thing is better. On the other hand, if Apple didn't make legacy gear incompatible with new OSes, they'd sell less hardware because Macs are usually built so well. Look at me. I'm getting by on a 2014 Mac Mini and a 2006 iMac because I can't justify an M1 iMac or Mac Mini yet (though I covet them greatly, complete with drool). My Mac Mini became obsolete the second I put Mojave on it with the new APFS file system. It brought my mac to a crawl until I eventually gutted the hard drive and replaced it with an SSD. This backs up what you said, but then again, my Mac *was* old.

Originally Posted by mr-lucas

Here is a slightly longer copy from our conversation:

My only suggestion to that is not every Kobo tech knows what they're talking about. I have found that I have to contact them twice to get a complete picture. You'll do well following the advice given to you on this forum. People here love their legacy Kobos and are invested in seeing them continue being useful.

[meeera]

Originally Posted by Cootey

Look at me. I'm getting by on a 2014 Mac Mini and a 2006 iMac because I can't justify an M1 iMac or Mac Mini yet

We've only just started to contemplate maybe replacing our 2010 iMac next year sometime, mainly because of increasing work-from-home. It works perfectly well and will go on to perform different tasks.

[koboy]

if it works why change it.

best wishes koboy