The Mortality of Software ⇥ sixcolors.com

This is my “something lighter” that I promised in the last post: an article about how all software will die one day.

Jason Snell:

Choosing change is tough, but sometimes you don’t choose, and there’s no obvious benefit at the end of the process. If one of your key tools is discontinued, or becomes incompatible with the next version of your operating system or the new hardware you just bought, you’re going to be forced to move eventually. Call Recorder users can keep using it for now, but as soon as they buy a Mac that’s running Apple silicon, the jig is up. Change is coming, inevitably.

I wish software were more durable over the long term, but that comes with its own baggage. That has long been the wrench in the spokes of Microsoft’s bicycle: some companies depend on software written when I was learning to walk.

On an individual level, we have to be okay with adaptation, but it is hard. Luckily, the whole world is constantly changing as well. My favourite instant messaging client no longer works — largely because the IM protocols I once relied upon no longer exist — but that is okay because my friends have moved on to phone-based messaging. It comes with unique benefits; it comes with new drawbacks. And we keep chatting along because it is fine.