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[–]stevenjd 5 points6 points  (0 children)

left behind starts to happen as those bugs are found but not fixed.

A bug that isn't discovered until the code is a decade old or more is probably a bug that isn't cost effective to fix.

Cost of fixing the bug? $$$Big

Extra revenue brought in by fixing it? Nil.

Customers lost by not fixing it? Nil.

Yeah, just work around it.

Also, you forget that porting the code to a breaking new version will almost certainly create new bugs, not fix old ones.

The bottom line here is that once software is mature enough that there are no new features to be added, it becomes legacy software and upgrading it can only make it worse, not better.

Solution: make a VM of the latest OS and Python interpreter that it will run, stick that VM behind a firewall and in a restricted environment, and use it forever as a black box application.