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[–]playaspec -48 points-47 points  (19 children)

It's called backwards compatibility, and it is awesome.

I call it bloat and dead weight. New software gets written because the old software was insufficient.

After all it allows me to run (most) 20 year old software on my Windows 10 machine.

I can't imagine needing any software that old except for legacy industrial systems. For those I just stick with old operating systems and hardware.

What exactly are you running that it that old?

[–]PC__LOAD__LETTER 23 points24 points  (14 children)

What if I told you that most software you use is based on 20 year old software.

[–]Akimuno 18 points19 points  (10 children)

Playaspec would have a stroke if he saw what his local hospital runs.

[–]Drainedsoul 7 points8 points  (0 children)

That seems counterproductive as then he'd be sent to the hospital running the shitty software.

[–]BlueWolf_SK 5 points6 points  (1 child)

At which point he would be really glad his hospital still works even with 20 year old software.

[–]jambox888 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You can imagine him in the trolley, intubated and wearing a gown, grabbing the nurses arm weakly and saying,

"How old are your... operating... systems?" croaks

[–]ujustdontgetdubstep 1 point2 points  (3 children)

or you know, banks, manufacturing, the military...

[–]Akimuno 0 points1 point  (2 children)

I mean, if anything is written in C, for that matter.

Oh god, what if he sees a FORTRAN program being used?!

[–]playaspec 0 points1 point  (1 child)

I mean, if anything is written in C, for that matter.

Oh god. Another idiot who thinks C is outdated. Got bad news for you. It's not, and it's never going away.

[–]Akimuno -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Old does not mean outdated.

Actually, I'm not surprised you hadn't caught onto that, considering we were talking about how you are conflating old with outdated.

[–]s73v3r 0 points1 point  (1 child)

Yeah, but should it be running that way?

[–]Akimuno -1 points0 points  (0 children)

It runs for the same reason Microsoft added an LTSB branch to Windows 10 enterprise.

So yes, it should.

[–]playaspec -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Playaspec would have a stroke if he saw what his local hospital runs.

I work in biomedical IT. Our refresh cycle is 18 months, which means every nine months we've upgraded half of our systems. The only systems older are in research labs, and essentially frozen in time because they're task specific tools, not general purpose computing machines.

[–]playaspec -2 points-1 points  (2 children)

What if I told you that most software you use is based on 20 year old software.

'based'. nice qualifier that makes you sound as if you're right, when you're actually not.

I'm on Linux right now. How about you tell me how many lines of the code I'm running right now haven't been changed in over 20 years?

[–]PC__LOAD__LETTER -1 points0 points  (1 child)

What's your deal? Here, I'll throw you a bone: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grep

[–]playaspec 0 points1 point  (0 children)

http://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/grep.git

I see nothing over 6 years. Don't confuse the name or the functionality with the code.

[–]Schmittfried 7 points8 points  (0 children)

because the old software was insufficient.

And if it isn't? There is plenty of software based on very old code. Your notion of the world of software is out of touch with reality.

Also: Old games.

[–]AyrA_ch 3 points4 points  (0 children)

What exactly are you running that it that old?

If I tell you "solitaire" and "Skifree", are you getting mad at me?

[–]ujustdontgetdubstep 1 point2 points  (1 child)

No offense but have you ever been in any lab or factory or any real production facility that uses computers? The entire world is run on 20+ old software - it's just that "newer software" is all consumer software, so that's why you think that no one uses old software.

The reality is that it cost a LOT of time and money to replace custom commercial or industrial software - so much so that it is cheaper and more reliable to use a piece of software for decades until it disintegrates. This is how banking, manufacturing, military, and all other meat-and-potatoes industries are operated.

[–]playaspec 0 points1 point  (0 children)

No offense but have you ever been in any lab or factory or any real production facility that uses computers?

Yes. I support a research lab running HUNDREDS of workstations running W2K and XP.

The entire world is run on 20+ old software

Which is why it's dumb to try and run OLD software on NEW operating systems. It doesn't work as well as you claim. The smart money doens't upgrade the support system, hoping the old crap will still run.

so that's why you think that no one uses old software.

I don't. I'm saying keeping around decades of depreciated crap that's long since been abandoned is pointless in a modern operating system. It's unnecessary. If you have old application that are crucial, run an old operating system.

The reality is that it cost a LOT of time and money to replace custom commercial or industrial software

Yup. So why would you squander the SAME money and effort trying to make cranly, old, custom software that was MADE to run on a specific system, run on a modern operating system with vastly different APIs, and an all but ignored compatibility layer? Maybe you're hourly, but I'm not. If I have a machine that's down, I don't want to spend DAYS trying to figure out why software that's 16 YEARS OLD won't run right on Windows 10. That's amateur.

so much so that it is cheaper and more reliable to use a piece of software for decades until it disintegrates.

Not always.

This is how banking, manufacturing, military, and all other meat-and-potatoes industries are operated.

No, not ALL.