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These are the companies you want to be at IMHO. Provided the compensation is adequate, slow and stable > fast and pivot-y.

willsmith72 2y ago
older versions can also mean deprecated packages everyone's too scared to touch, failure to invest in maintenance and tech debt reduction, or use of old technologies which stopped receiving security updates
stackskipton 2y ago
SRE here, not at all. Not chasing shiny is important but generally when tech debt builds up this high, life is generally hell in terms of outages, unable to accomplish basic tasks and dealing with a bunch of people who have NIH syndrome.
- Spivak 2y ago
  Which is why you build on a platform like Alma/Redhat that gives you 10 years of support. You can call it outdated I guess but I prefer "supported." Make everyone else work out the new bugs before upgrading-- it used to be the rule not to update to a .0 release but being a hip modern developer means moving the 0 to the other side and yoloing it.
  - ziml77 2y ago
    The problem is that software ends up not getting touched for all those years, but eventually needs an upgrade when it's at end of support. And at that point you end up having to make changes to a system where no one remembers how it works or how to deploy it. Keeping software up to date to me is similar to how you practice disaster recovery scenarios. You do it regularly so no one forgets the processes and so any issues can be dealt with while you're not under a short time limit.
necheffa 2y ago
> These are the companies you want to be at IMHO. Provided the compensation is adequate, slow and stable > fast and pivot-y. Absolutely...not. Slow does not mean stable. Slow means the floor is rotting out from under you constantly. Being prudent about when and where to upgrade is a very active, intentional process that the typical company simply don't have the stomach or skill for.
- throwaway894345 2y ago
  Yeah, eventually you will have to upgrade and deal with all of the accumulated debt. You don’t have to be on the bleeding edge but you should still be updating regularly.
- chasil 2y ago
  We are still running OS2200 EXEC-8. That platform got SMP in 1964.

willsmith72 2y ago

older versions can also mean deprecated packages everyone's too scared to touch, failure to invest in maintenance and tech debt reduction, or use of old technologies which stopped receiving security updates

stackskipton 2y ago

SRE here, not at all. Not chasing shiny is important but generally when tech debt builds up this high, life is generally hell in terms of outages, unable to accomplish basic tasks and dealing with a bunch of people who have NIH syndrome.

Spivak 2y ago
Which is why you build on a platform like Alma/Redhat that gives you 10 years of support. You can call it outdated I guess but I prefer "supported." Make everyone else work out the new bugs before upgrading-- it used to be the rule not to update to a .0 release but being a hip modern developer means moving the 0 to the other side and yoloing it.
- ziml77 2y ago
  The problem is that software ends up not getting touched for all those years, but eventually needs an upgrade when it's at end of support. And at that point you end up having to make changes to a system where no one remembers how it works or how to deploy it. Keeping software up to date to me is similar to how you practice disaster recovery scenarios. You do it regularly so no one forgets the processes and so any issues can be dealt with while you're not under a short time limit.

necheffa 2y ago

> These are the companies you want to be at IMHO. Provided the compensation is adequate, slow and stable > fast and pivot-y. Absolutely...not. Slow does not mean stable. Slow means the floor is rotting out from under you constantly. Being prudent about when and where to upgrade is a very active, intentional process that the typical company simply don't have the stomach or skill for.

throwaway894345 2y ago
Yeah, eventually you will have to upgrade and deal with all of the accumulated debt. You don’t have to be on the bleeding edge but you should still be updating regularly.
chasil 2y ago
We are still running OS2200 EXEC-8. That platform got SMP in 1964.