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There is another very active article on HN today about the launch of the new Apple iPhone 16 models. The top discussion thread on that post is about “my old iP

by efitz 2y ago

There is another very active article on HN today about the launch of the new Apple iPhone 16 models. The top discussion thread on that post is about “my old iPhone $version is good enough, why would I upgrade”. It’s funny, if you ask tech people, a lot fall into the “I have to have the latest and greatest” but also a lot fall into the “I’ll upgrade when they pry the rusting hardware from my cold dead hands”. For Microsoft, the driver for backwards compatibility is economic: Microsoft wants people to buy new Windows, but in order to do that, they have to (1) convince customers that all their existing stuff is going to continue to work, and (2) convince developers that they don’t have to rewrite (or even recompile) all their stuff whenever there’s a new version of Windows. Objectively, it seems like Microsoft made the right decision, based on revenue over the decades. Full disclosure: I worked for Microsoft for 17 years, mostly in and around Windows, but left over a decade ago.

ruthmarx 2y ago
> It’s funny, if you ask tech people, a lot fall into the “I have to have the latest and greatest” This is almost never a technical decision, but a 'showing off' decision IMO.
- HPsquared 2y ago
  It's a "fun toys" decision.
  - ruthmarx 2y ago
    Often one and the same.
aleph_minus_one 2y ago
> It’s funny, if you ask tech people, a lot fall into the “I have to have the latest and greatest” but also a lot fall into the “I’ll upgrade when they pry the rusting hardware from my cold dead hands”. Not concerning the iPhone, but in general tech people tend to be very vocal about not updating when they feel that the new product introduces some new spying features over the old one, or when they feel that the new product worsens what they love about the existing product (there, their taste is often very different from the "typical customer").
- efitz 2y ago
  Great related thread from yesterday: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41492251 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41492251

by efitz 2y ago

ruthmarx 2y ago

> It’s funny, if you ask tech people, a lot fall into the “I have to have the latest and greatest” This is almost never a technical decision, but a 'showing off' decision IMO.

HPsquared 2y ago
It's a "fun toys" decision.
- ruthmarx 2y ago
  Often one and the same.

aleph_minus_one 2y ago

> It’s funny, if you ask tech people, a lot fall into the “I have to have the latest and greatest” but also a lot fall into the “I’ll upgrade when they pry the rusting hardware from my cold dead hands”. Not concerning the iPhone, but in general tech people tend to be very vocal about not updating when they feel that the new product introduces some new spying features over the old one, or when they feel that the new product worsens what they love about the existing product (there, their taste is often very different from the "typical customer").

efitz 2y ago
Great related thread from yesterday: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41492251 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41492251