Something about the "too nice" thing rubs me the wrong way. You gotta respect the people who develop the software. At the same time, the way people are deemed "

Something about the "too nice" thing rubs me the wrong way. You gotta respect the people who develop the software. At the same time, the way people are deemed "complainers" reeks of contempt for the users. Yes, the users sometimes take your free work for granted. But you offered it. If you don't like the expectations that users assume are attached to it, you should say so upfront so they can become entangled with Ruby instead. I don't think I disagree with your point in practice. Maybe in some details. I just don't think that not being credible in your plan to drop support on a given date is necessarily such a "nice" thing to do. You could say it's a "weak" thing to do. It doesn't help people prioritize the move and eventually hurts people by putting them into a jam on the day finally comes here. I think the ideal thing would be to break compatibility piece by piece, assuming it's really necessary, but be _understanding_ about it. Tell people "we understand that this is inconvenient for a certain number of people but have to cut it off at some place", not "stop complaining about free stuff".