Thursday, August 17, 2006
Old Software Never Dies, It Just Becomes a Liability!
Posted by Jon Westfall in "THOUGHT" @ 06:01 AM
Recently one of the other editors here wrote to me in an email the following:
"[Manufacturer]'s website still shows [Version Number]. Talk about an old piece of software, it's almost one year old. ;-)"
While one year doesn't seem too long to most, it is a bit long for updated versions of software. Usually around the one year mark, I also start wondering if the software has been abandoned (Thankfully it's a safe bet that the product in our email hasn't - or else my job would get a lot harder!). The discussion got me thinking about older software and how much I miss some of my old "friends" because they were abandoned by their authors. While most of them I still can download or have copies of, I'm leery of installing them as they either don't run as well as they used to, don't run at all, or pose a threat to my other applications and data due to their age.
How old is too old for an application to live on your Pocket PC? At what point, without updates, do you feel the need to move on to another product that is updated - or do you simply stick with the old favorites until absolutely necessary? And for sentimental reasons, what application that has been "abandoned" do you miss the most?
"[Manufacturer]'s website still shows [Version Number]. Talk about an old piece of software, it's almost one year old. ;-)"
While one year doesn't seem too long to most, it is a bit long for updated versions of software. Usually around the one year mark, I also start wondering if the software has been abandoned (Thankfully it's a safe bet that the product in our email hasn't - or else my job would get a lot harder!). The discussion got me thinking about older software and how much I miss some of my old "friends" because they were abandoned by their authors. While most of them I still can download or have copies of, I'm leery of installing them as they either don't run as well as they used to, don't run at all, or pose a threat to my other applications and data due to their age.
How old is too old for an application to live on your Pocket PC? At what point, without updates, do you feel the need to move on to another product that is updated - or do you simply stick with the old favorites until absolutely necessary? And for sentimental reasons, what application that has been "abandoned" do you miss the most?
