42 ms·
> Their products are not under active maintenance nor development. Isn't it the same? Someone that directly update the app to newer API or someone that update
by dwild 9y ago
> Their products are not under active maintenance nor development.
Isn't it the same? Someone that directly update the app to newer API or someone that update an API to make sure the older apps are still running is pretty much the same at the end. Someone has to do that work.
There's someone that pay for it, whether it's nerds by their time, or Microsoft by their backward compatibility support.
Even for Microsoft, at the end of the day, you pay that price through your next Windows license, and still, they may decide not to keep supporting some of it (16 bits programs are no longer supported over 64 bits for example).
It's not different from a subscription model, except that instead of paying a fortune to support most things (which may not include what you actually need), you pay only to keep support over the product you actually use and need.
I'm not saying subscription models or cloud application are amazing, but being able to keep running your old apps is not the norm and is mostly made possible because there's someone that pay for it for you. At least in a subscription model, that relation is pretty direct, you pay for the software to keep working, unlike hoping that Windows invest into that old techs to make sure they keep running.
- tomc1985 9y ago"but being able to keep running your old apps is not the norm" Only for the cloud cohort. Not all of us drink the kool-aid! Try living in a computing environment where the technology-rug isn't pulled out from under you every three months. Both Windows and Linux have not had core changes to their API. The fundamentals of application programming haven't changed in decades. Why shouldn't we allow old apps to run?
- khedoros1 9y agoI've got a good-sized collection of vintage hardware and software. Microsoft stops supporting something? All well, I've got my older versions still available. They don't get updates, but for the most part, I didn't expect them to when I bought them. > you pay only to keep support over the product you actually use and need. And you pay it over and over again. Until you don't need it (which might be because they removed some feature you were relying on, with no recourse). > but being able to keep running your old apps is not the norm Losing access to my old apps isn't the norm, unless I choose to let go of control over my own computer's software.