[openssl-users] [openssl-dev] Removing obsolete crypto from OpenSSL 1.1 - seeking feedback

[Benjamin Kaduk]

On 11/17/2015 12:00 PM, Jeffrey Walton wrote:
>
>
> Also, if OpenSSL requires iOS 9 or above, then its setting policy for users.

In some sense, yes.  But it has always done so -- OpenSSL only supports
certain platforms, and certain versions of certain platforms.  There are
prerequisites to being able to build any piece of software, and those
prerequisites can and must change as new versions of that software are
released.  In particular...

> I still have iOS 6, 7 and 8 devices because (1) some of my hardware is
> old and abandoned by Apple (they are trying to set policy, too, in an
> effort to boost sales). (2) I dislike the "cartoony" interface of iOS
> 7 and above. (3) I have down level OS X operating systems (due to
> operational requirements and personal taste), and they can't talk to
> iOS 8 or 9 devices.
>

Will Apple still be supporting even iOS 8 in two years?  I find it hard
to make a case that OpenSSL should make an active push to support
platforms no longer receiving security updates, given that we are
supposed to be security software.  In your personal case, you seem happy
to use older versions of OS X and iOS; what is different about those
compared to OpenSSL that you could not continue using an older version
of OpenSSL if you found some functionality of the old version to be
preferable?


-Ben