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Mac OS X is now older than Mac OS “Classic” was when OS X was first released. Must be a nightmare to maintain.

• tablespoon 5y ago
  > Mac OS X is now older than Mac OS “Classic” was when OS X was first released. > Must be a nightmare to maintain. OS X is only a few years younger that Classic Mac OS (given it's basically an overhauled version of NeXTSTEP). And while I'm sure it's a nightmare to maintain, I don't think it would be any easier if it were "younger." Modern operating systems are fundamentally very complicated pieces of software, and if one where cut down to be easy to maintain (which would include ditching backwards compatibility when it became mildly inconvenient), no one would want to use it.
  • vladvasiliu 5y ago
    > and if one where cut down to be easy to maintain (which would include ditching backwards compatibility when it became mildly inconvenient), no one would want to use it. But isn't this more or less what happens with macOS? Now and then they drop compatibility with some old stuff when they deem everyone should be running on the new thing. I'm thinking Carbon, 32-bit apps, etc.
    • tablespoon 5y ago
      > But isn't this more or less what happens with macOS? They seem more aggressive with doing that than other vendors, when they do they signal for (years?) in advance, and I doubt they do that to the degree that it makes development "easy."