In the TV show Manifest, passengers on Flight 828 disappear for more than five years during a routine trip. When they miraculously reappear, although they’re still alive, they find they’re now subject to a…death date. Clearly, the writers were inspired by SaaS (Software as a Service) companies.

Like an airplane, data disappears into the cloud. You think all is well until you realize that, one day, the software end-of-life death date will come—when the company shuts down the cloud servers.

Interestingly, NBC gave Manifest a death date after three seasons. But Netflix smelled a bargain, bought the rights, marketed it, and season four became a massive hit. There’s a lesson in there somewhere for the music industry…but I digress.

Or, maybe the writers got the idea from grocery stores, where “best by” means end of support, and “sell by” means end of life. End of life can be abrupt, like Apple nuking Firewire OS support. Or it can be a slow decline, as Windows 10 fades out, despite Microsoft once saying it would be the last version ever of Windows. Oops.

Which brings us to the tools we use to play, record, mix and master music. Much of today’s hardware depends on software, like apps and drivers. Drivers link hardware and computers, so if the driver vanishes, poof! Your hardware becomes a doorstop. The irony is that often the hardware still works fine. Intel Macs didn’t melt when Apple Silicon appeared. Windows 10 laptops didn’t implode because Windows 11 exists. Yet the death date for any software-dependent hardware—i.e., when you can no longer use it for essential tasks—always moves ever closer.

Technology changes. Of course it does. And credit where credit is due: Despite Apple’s penchant for planned obsolescence, my antediluvian iPhone 7 recently received a security update, so I can still use it.

Credit to Line 6, too. Despite announcing a new, Helix-based product line, they’re supporting and updating the original, decade-old Helix line, with no death date in sight. And even though Microsoft condemned zillions of computers to landfills, they’ve prioritized backward-compatibility for software that runs on Windows. That’s nice…but my music hardware is still unusable.

With computers, it’s possible to reformat Windows machines into Linux devices. For old Macs, you can be brave and try the OpenCore bootloader that forces ancient Macs to run current Mac operating systems. But what’s a long-term solution—not a short-term fix—for music-related hardware?

One problem is that macOS, Windows and Linux each handle drivers differently. With Windows, you often install drivers manually. With Linux, drivers are open-source applications that live in the operating system’s kernel. When you install the OS, you install the drivers. However, if the Linux driver you need for your hardware isn’t in the kernel, the question becomes whether a driver will ever show up (spoiler alert: you might not like the answer). The Mac locks down its kernel for Apple drivers only, although the company’s DriverKit utility allows writing drivers for specific hardware. System extensions can live outside the kernel, too.

Meanwhile, after the Crowdstrike cybersecurity software debacle turned Windows computers into Blue Screen of Death art installations, EU regulators realized that wanting Microsoft to encourage competition by letting rando companies write drivers with kernel-level access wasn’t the greatest idea ever. So, Microsoft is transitioning to a new driver model that moves some software outside the kernel.

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While prioritizing security and consistency of legacy support was probably inevitable, developers of older, niche hardware (like what we often use) may not be prepared when the transition occurs later this year. Older drivers might become incompatible, and not be rewritten.

Fortunately, there’s a wonderful solution! Play acoustic instruments live and use only analog gear. On second thought, maybe that’s not such a wonderful solution. Never mind.

Ideally, MI companies would commit to end-of-support dates for software. Apple has committed to at least five years of smartphone updates, Google and Samsung to seven years. Our industry needs transparent support promises. Buyers of expensive gear deserve more than “this might work next year.”

Whether a company promises 12 months or 10 years, it needs to commit. However, updates require resources. This could factor into the product cost, where customers trade off short-term pain for product longevity. Or, as with Windows 10, optional update subscriptions could follow a company’s end of support. Any subscription would need to manage expectations—like supporting only current operating systems—but that’s better than nothing.

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Finally, if all else fails, release the driver code for open-source development. Granted, it may be difficult for some basement hacker to write something like a ReWire library for Apple Silicon. And I know nothing about code, so I don’t know what updating involves. Writing a driver for a hardware synth might take a year. Or an afternoon.

I do know that some drivers need only a couple characters changed to make them compatible with newer operating systems, because I’ve done it—even though the companies said it wouldn’t work. They wanted me to buy new hardware. Yes, we live in the Golden Age of Gluttonous Greed, but still…

What matters is fairness—to the consumer who trusted the company, and to the company that can’t extend a product’s lifetime without resources. I’ve made some suggestions. Maybe they’re naive and based on ignorance about software. But if they are, we still need a solution.

Your turn.