>> I hate to say it but I think we really need some kind of basic regulation in this area. Companies should not be able to just decide to remotely stop you from using your software just because they consider it old and icky.
I totally agree, but also disagree.
I worked at a large corporation that designed and built lawn maintenance equipment. It sold both commercial and retail products.
I worked there as a front-end developer. This was in the mid aughts when it had already been 5-6 years since companies had dropped support for it and developers were already migrating to Chrome and Firefox. I was told everything I coded had to have backward compatibility with get this. . . . .IE 6. They said they had several vendors in China and overseas and the only way they could order their stuff was on a site that still worked in IE6. It was more or less just an order form they would print out, fill in, and then fax to our office for fulfillment. It was probably the most mind numbingly stupid experience I was put through and it felt like torture telling your dev friends you're still dealing with having to code stuff for IE6.
So yes, I agree, but we should at least have some kind of limitation on how long a company needs to support their software since it eventually ends up costing the company a lot of time and energy. The company I worked for had spent a lot of money to deal with all the issues associated with supporting IE6. Developer churn was pretty high because devs would get there and think they were having to work at some clown show because this company had made the decision to stick with this very outdated technology.
So yes, I agree we need regulation, but we also need some decent guard rails so what happened to me at the above company doesn't continue to happen.
Totally. Just to be clear, I'm not suggesting companies be obligated to continue developing new code for older systems. Just that they not be allowed to pull the rug out from under existing users who want to simply continue using the software that already works for them.
I used to use the "FlightAware" app on my iPhone to look up information about airplanes, airline flights and stuff. Last "update" they pushed out was a single modal dialog that essentially says "You can no longer use this application on your device. You need to buy a new phone." The software was working perfectly one day, and then bam, sorry not sorry. That's what FlightAware means by dropping support: Pulling the rug out from under existing users who would be happy to just continue using their older version.
I totally agree, but also disagree.
I worked at a large corporation that designed and built lawn maintenance equipment. It sold both commercial and retail products.
I worked there as a front-end developer. This was in the mid aughts when it had already been 5-6 years since companies had dropped support for it and developers were already migrating to Chrome and Firefox. I was told everything I coded had to have backward compatibility with get this. . . . .IE 6. They said they had several vendors in China and overseas and the only way they could order their stuff was on a site that still worked in IE6. It was more or less just an order form they would print out, fill in, and then fax to our office for fulfillment. It was probably the most mind numbingly stupid experience I was put through and it felt like torture telling your dev friends you're still dealing with having to code stuff for IE6.
So yes, I agree, but we should at least have some kind of limitation on how long a company needs to support their software since it eventually ends up costing the company a lot of time and energy. The company I worked for had spent a lot of money to deal with all the issues associated with supporting IE6. Developer churn was pretty high because devs would get there and think they were having to work at some clown show because this company had made the decision to stick with this very outdated technology.
So yes, I agree we need regulation, but we also need some decent guard rails so what happened to me at the above company doesn't continue to happen.