Software may be getting worse, but it used to be horrible

While the software industry continues to produce increasingly complex applications, many people lament the decline in software quality over the years. However, author <name> argues that the software was much worse in the past.

In the 1990s, <name> recalls a time when Windows dominated the market with an estimated 95% market share. However, this dominance came with numerous stability issues. Blue Screens of Death were common, occurring unpredictably and rendering the computer unusable. Device drivers, responsible for enabling the operating system to interact with hardware, were often buggy and could destabilize the entire system. The operating system itself also had issues with resource management, causing computers to degrade over time.

Software quality was further compromised by poorly designed applications. Many lacked autosave functionality, and even those that did often failed to flush buffer writes, leading to corrupted save files. Users frequently lost hours of work due to system crashes and application failures. Additionally, the internet era brought a barrage of advertising malware, pop-ups, and viruses that further degraded computer performance.

Despite these challenges, there were some silver linings. Companies only got one chance to ship their software, resulting in a quality floor that couldn't be slipped below. Users had to rely on saving manually, as applications didn't autosave by default. The author also reminisces about the less-than-secure environment, where a 9-year-old could easily bypass security measures like password-protected screensavers.

Overall, <name> contends that the software landscape was far more unstable and unreliable in the past, with frequent crashes, poorly designed applications, and limited security measures.