Corps don't just want to make big bucks, they want to make big bucks as soon and as quickly as possible. No time for safety certifications ! Perpetual beta (if not alpha) is the new normal ! Public release is the new testing arena ! (Too bad about the occasional casualties, but we've got profits to make !) When will they ever be forced to face any kind of rigorous vetting ?
Microsoft shares much of the blame for this, with their steady pressure for the "perpetual beta" model in which nothing is ever really fixed. Apple didn't take long to go down the same path, and even Linux distros that used to offer LTS (long term support) releases as one option seem to be dropping them (at least in my admittedly limited sampling).
(OT: I'm running into more and more problems with old apps/utilities that can't be used because they've never been ported to versions compatible with new OS's, compilers, debuggers etc. or are rejected by the OS as unregistered etc.
I'm NOT going to "catch up" with Windows or OSX, ever. Too much effort and expense -- I have multiple working computers that can't run the latest OSs other than Linux, so I'm increasingly avoiding Apple to the same extent that I've always tried to avoid Windows. The continued "progress" of the software industry takes place outside of my world, and if they're not careful, they may find themselves outside a lot of other people's worlds.
I'm starting to turn more attention to reviving old hardware and OSs so I don't lose access to stuff I did years ago -- docs and programs. My programs are very simple, should be easy to recompile, but rely on some libraries I can't upgrade or replace because (a) the original author is dead, and (b) later versions may now be propietary.)
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