US President Joe Biden reminds the White House he is serious about repairability

US President Joe Biden has weighed into the Right to Repair furore once more as sueballs fly over some alleged monopolistic practises by a well-known farming equipment manufacturer. While Biden did not mention John Deere by name in his tweet on the matter (preferring instead to offer plaudits to Apple and Microsoft for …

[JimboSmith]

Does that apply to farm machinery too? https://www.theregister.com/2022/01/25/john_deere_right_to_repair_lawsuits/

Are you listening John Deere!

[stiine]

Only if the Executive branch owns the tractor.

[John Brown (no body)]

Well, at least the idea seems to be gaining some traction in the corridors of power.

[MyffyW]

Glad to see the Executive ploughing this particular furrow

(sorry, I'm putting my wellies and shagged-out barbour jacket on as we speak)

[Anonymous Coward]

I'd love to see these folks try and do anything with an apple device.

[Anonymous Coward]

Repairability?

I'm more interested in a reasonable lifespan for portable device operating systems. We get the likes of Linux with years of support for LTS releases. We get Windows releases that live 7-10 years or more.

But Google? Apple? 3 years, give or take. Then you're left with a paperweight.

That is our big landfill issue, not the paltry few devices that need repairs.

[Anonymous Coward]

My iPhone is over 6 years old and can run current iOS.

Sure, I'd be in favor of mandating 10 year current OS updates and 20 year security updates. But Google is 3 years, Apple support is longer.

[karlkarl]

The obligatory:

"Right to repair from Microsoft?? They can't even repair their own broken shite!"

[MyffyW]

print spooler ... sigh

[Boris the Cockroach]

I'd

be happy to see 6-8 tiny screws in the back of my smartphone and a handy 'lever here' tab so I can unseal the battery compartment and install a new battery. then a line of glue and 8 screws to lock it back up again.

Instead the method is hot air gun the phone, slide a thin plastic thing into the gap between the screen and the body, lever the screen out, hot air gun to the connector and remove screen completely, 12 tiny(and I mean tiny) screws to dismount the phone innards from the body, flip over, hot air gun the battery and disconnect.

Assembly is easy... follow the above instructions in reverse... and pray it still works when you switch on...

Guess another servicable phone is off to landfill :( good side though is that its 5 years old now

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: I'd

It's not a complete fantasy to be able to easily dismantle a phone. e.g. you can take a Fairphone to bits with a screwdriver. There may also be other options?

[Claverhouse]

Do The Right Thing

Folksy old bugger, isn't he ?

[David 132]

Re: Do The Right Thing

Quoting Blackadder:

"Not while Pitt the Elder's in charge. As long as his feet are warm and he gets a nice cup of milky tea in the sun before his morning nap, he doesn't bother anybody until his potty needs emptying..."

Any relevance of the above quote to the current POTUS is entirely in the mind of the reader.

[anonymous boring coward]

Re: Do The Right Thing

At least he isn’t a mean, nasty scumbag. That’s a plus.

[Claverhouse]

Tough on Crime

Actually...

Apart from being a shill in congress for the credit card industry; and voting enthusiastically for every war that came along, Biden Senior is more responsible for the astounding increase in America's penal system --- banging up as many black people as his old racist mentors in congress hearts' could desire --- over the last 50 years than any other single individual.

Most quaint of all: he doubled the number of capital offences to nearly 100.

[ArrZarr]

Re: Tough on Crime

Okay, sure. He's not perfect.

Shall we take a look at who the competition was for the office in the 2020 election again?

[Cederic]

Re: Tough on Crime

Someone that I don't recall sharing a viewpoint on right to repair.

Although I was more interested in the lack of wars he started, the energy self-sufficiency he supported, the economic growth and low inflation he enabled and the shelves he kept full.

Perhaps I should have focused on the mean tweets?

[MyffyW]

Re: Do The Right Thing

Joe is at least wrong within the normal parameters of governmental competence.

[A.P. Veening]

Re: Do The Right Thing

Joe is at least wrong within the normal parameters of governmental incompetence.

FTFY ;)

[Alan Brown]

Re: Do The Right Thing

He's pretty hawkish nonetheless. The Mega raids were signed off by Biden when he was VP

Let's not forget:

In the overall scheme of things:

The Democrats are right wing

The Republicans are extreme right wing

MAGA are lunatics

Bernie is a centre right social democrat

Our North American readers have a distorted view of the world because the ENTIRE political spectrum in the USA is significantly right of centre

[willi0000000]

given everything else on his plate from the previous maladministration, i'm surprised he found time for right to repair.

[Pascal Monett]

Well, it seems that there are at least three Trump fans on the loose around here.

[codejunky]

@willi0000000

"given everything else on his plate from the previous maladministration"

I assume you mean since taking over from? No wonder the dems were so desperate to impeach Trump, people now have a side by side comparison of how good they had it.

[Potemkine!]

If right to repair isn't made mandatory by law, it won't happen most of the time. From cars to electronic devices, manufacturers use a lot of tricks to make the task to fix by yourself harder.