Install ios 6 or higher on iPad 1 ?

My understanding is the IOS6 cannot be installed on iPad 1.  As this was intended I presume therefore that IOS6 no longer contained support for the hardware etc from the original iPad.  In addition, it is likely that the system requirements (RAM, processor etc) of the iPad 1 would not be sufficient to operate the newer IOS.

Do we know this for sure?  I know that what you say is definitely true when it comes to ios 7, but is there no way to do ios 6 on the iPad1?

That is the information available on all the apple forums.  However, you could have a look at  Hello iOS 6, goodbye iPad 1: Inject new life by jailbreaking it

It does suggest JailBreaking to access third-party software.  Not something I would usually suggest but it may be your only option.

I read up some on jailbreaking the ipad1.  It doesn't seem to say whether you can keep the apps you already bought and it doesn't say whether you can buy new apps from Apple that run on ios 6 or higher.  In fact, the 3rd party software seems to emulate the APPEARANCE of ios 6 or 7, but it is really still running 5.1.1  

Anyone else out there know more about this?

You won't be able to buy new IOS6 apps, but there is other apps available outside of iTunes which might meet your needs.  JailBreaking doesn't upgrade you to the new IOS, it only really allows you to access Apps not available from Apple.

Therefore it won't fix your problem, but may give you alternative options.

Does this mean that my existing apps are now trashed?  Are there links to look at these other apps I can obtain before I try this?