Seems like if you want to make that statement (it'll ruin your software) you need more than a hypothetical example. There are some good ones in memory. 1. Net

Seems like if you want to make that statement (it'll ruin your software) you need more than a hypothetical example. There are some good ones in memory. 1. Netscape Navigator - was such "spaghetti" that they had trouble re-architecting it to allow it to keep up with evolving web standards, and then put everything into Navigator 6.0 which ended up running like a snail. (Second system effect). I'll note that according to jwz, it was written by people working lots of all-nighters. 2. Microsoft Word for Windows. Apparently had a ponzi-like accumulation of technical debt as they kept adding features to the release and writing code that looked technically correct but was known to be flawed, relying on testers to find the bugs they had known they wrote. Took version 2 for the bugs to get ironed out to a usable state. I've tried coding with some open source programs that are mostly being used for a company's internal process that are basically piles of technical debt, but it'd be rude to mention. I'm sure there are other great ones, but now that so much software is SaaS, we're probably not going to hear about it, because the release dates aren't as obvious. To me, eBay appears to be one, as they are trying to remake their web application to be more modern but it has tons of warts all over it.