Before computers proliferated, it was supposed to be a promising future for one reason because it would be theoretically possible to write a single program whic

Before computers proliferated, it was supposed to be a promising future for one reason because it would be theoretically possible to write a single program which truly solved a problem (big or small), and that problem would remain solved forever. I guess you would have to qualify that, as long as no undesirable changes in underlying hardware or OS were to be contemplated. But why would you want that anyway if you were interested in long-term solutions? Plus if all you needed to do was one thing (big or small) with a PC, you would be fine with a PC that was only capable of running one program at a time. Think about the user experience back when you were anticipating PC's to one day become ubiquitous. Ideally you would be able to go up to any PC anywhere (or anywhere you have permission in secure environments) with your portable storage device, floppy, USB, whatever, and just run your executable to accomplish what you want without any other dependencies from a network or anywhere else. The more technical the user the more they realized this meant that a program should be truly finished before deployment, not subject to revision or updates, have no dependencies, and in no need of further maintenance. Why settle for less? Regardless of whether or not it could ever be done like that any more, I would still want my software to come from people who would be outstanding at this approach anyway. At the other end of the spectrum you have the "update enthusiasts". It's not bad as long as there are never any "breaking changes", only new features, but that is far too rare. What bothers me is deploying half-baked stuff to begin with, and then needing years of updates just because that's such a well established trend. Looks to me like complete superstition, and the foundation is becoming less firm all the time as a result. >See also science, industrialization, and the temperature of the planet. Good examples for better or worse. Sometimes "breaking changes" get out of hand and scale themselves, which is what people just aren't avoiding well enough any more in many ways. It takes concentrated effort not to do it.