3 ms·

>One of the things that really blew my mind this year was a large ($40MM) software development project I became familiar with (a worldwide internal system for a

>One of the things that really blew my mind this year was a large ($40MM) software development project I became familiar with (a worldwide internal system for a multinational corporation) that concluded -- in 2011 -- and required MSIE 6. MSIE 6! Doesn't even run on MSIE 7, much less any modern browser. This happens all the time at the hospital I work at. I'm constantly flummoxed by how behind the times software vendors consistently are. We're still stuck on XP for the foreseeable future because some of our vendors are still pushing updates that are totally incompatible with NT6 with no timeline for when it might work. They've had half a decade to fix their software, and they just aren't doing it. I understand that Enterprise moves slowly, but you eventually reach a point of absurdity, as well.

danudey 15y ago
I worked at a hospital in 2008, where, mid-summer, the IT department had just approved the use of Windows XP Service Pack 2 (which was released in August 2004). Note that this doesn't mean they were actually going to start deploying it. It just meant that they were open to the idea of doing so. I'd be surprised if they'd actually upgraded any machines yet.
- electromagnetic 15y ago
  The law firm my wife works for has just switched to the new version of office, because Word Perfect is no longer supported by their billing software. I don't even think their version was new either. It's kind of sad that you'll only modernize when you'll no longer get paid. You'd think improving efficiency would be motive for modernization, but I guess not.
Apple-Guy 15y ago
Probably why so many hospitals are choosing iPad over PCs.
- commandar 15y ago
  Our software is so tied to PCs and IE that that's not even an option.
willholley 15y ago
One problem is that as a vendor, we have to work to the lowest common denominator. It's still generally a requirement that you support IE6, despite the department of health encouraging hospitals to upgrade, because they have legacy apps where the vendor has disappeared or the upgrade is too expensive / painful for the hospital to bear. We actually ship customers a custom build of Chromium which can only access our application (hospital policy generally dictates they must use IE to access the internet for "security" reasons) - we would love them to just use modern browsers so we can ditch our custom client but it doesn't look like it's going to happen any time soon :-(

danudey 15y ago

I worked at a hospital in 2008, where, mid-summer, the IT department had just approved the use of Windows XP Service Pack 2 (which was released in August 2004). Note that this doesn't mean they were actually going to start deploying it. It just meant that they were open to the idea of doing so. I'd be surprised if they'd actually upgraded any machines yet.

electromagnetic 15y ago
The law firm my wife works for has just switched to the new version of office, because Word Perfect is no longer supported by their billing software. I don't even think their version was new either. It's kind of sad that you'll only modernize when you'll no longer get paid. You'd think improving efficiency would be motive for modernization, but I guess not.

Apple-Guy 15y ago

Probably why so many hospitals are choosing iPad over PCs.

commandar 15y ago
Our software is so tied to PCs and IE that that's not even an option.

willholley 15y ago

One problem is that as a vendor, we have to work to the lowest common denominator. It's still generally a requirement that you support IE6, despite the department of health encouraging hospitals to upgrade, because they have legacy apps where the vendor has disappeared or the upgrade is too expensive / painful for the hospital to bear. We actually ship customers a custom build of Chromium which can only access our application (hospital policy generally dictates they must use IE to access the internet for "security" reasons) - we would love them to just use modern browsers so we can ditch our custom client but it doesn't look like it's going to happen any time soon :-(