I agree with coldtea that you're probably creating more work for yourself by trying to make old versions of software work for you. In any case, one thing that

I agree with coldtea that you're probably creating more work for yourself by trying to make old versions of software work for you. In any case, one thing that jumped out at me reading your blog post is how interdependent software has become — everything depends on everything else, the apps on the OS, the OS on one device with the OS on another (iPhone sync), and so on. Many decisions may have been individually right, but it sets off a domino effect of upgrades and disruptions to your workflow. I agree with you that if you bothered to read the iOS release notes, it should have warned you that it will require an OS X upgrade. But again the larger lesson is not to get your software into such a fragile state where one update causes a domino effect. My solution is to always say yes when I'm prompted for an upgrade. That way, a single upgrade causes little trouble. When I use a product or service, I'm buying into the developer's vision, not making a decision as to whether to use version 3.5.638 of an app. And if that developer's vision no longer works for me, I switch to another developer, rather than micromanaging every version of every app. And if an app doesn't work with an updated OS, that's the app developer's fault as far as I'm concerned. Or if one app doesn't work with an upgraded version of another app, then the first app developer is at fault. I'll stop using the defective app if I have to.