Software Update Frustrations

The cluster centers on complaints about frequent software updates causing breaking changes, bugs, and productivity losses, contrasted with arguments for updates due to maintenance needs and new features.

📉 Falling 0.5x Other
4,875
Comments
19
Years Active
5
Top Authors
#7793
Topic ID

Activity Over Time

2008
23
2009
49
2010
69
2011
138
2012
154
2013
190
2014
154
2015
179
2016
276
2017
281
2018
286
2019
347
2020
402
2021
462
2022
478
2023
511
2024
390
2025
452
2026
34

Keywords

SHOULD CHANGES GUI NO FEATURE LTS OPTIONAL FE ST2 UI updates update breaking changes breaking changes version software upgrade change bugs

Sample Comments

workthrowaway Nov 21, 2019 View on HN

nit: these updates often break working software if you ask me. the productivity loss here is not negligible.

buboard Jan 3, 2019 View on HN

What's happening is that it's been too long since they introduced something that was not an incremental upgrade.

enomar Apr 14, 2009 View on HN

What's wrong with that? I don't blame them for wanting people to upgrade. The new version is probably easier for them to maintain.

tdkl Apr 2, 2015 View on HN

What if you update it ? Software sometimes requires some crucial back-end changes and can't be supported to infinity.

eikenberry Nov 13, 2020 View on HN

New functionality means new bugs and breaking changes to old functionality. Sometimes the trade-off is worth it, but don't like being forced to update when it isn't.

vdfs Jul 25, 2024 View on HN

It would be interesting to see where this doesn't happen, you can't just update stuff without considering breaking changes and new bugs in new updates

TeddyDD Sep 20, 2023 View on HN

They still do breaking changes, so it's probably for the best.

iberator Aug 28, 2025 View on HN

Why update if something is perfect? Like in the old days: final version :) wait for new one in few years :)

jas0so Oct 27, 2021 View on HN

Just because the version increments doesnt mean it'll be as painful a transition.

podperson Feb 23, 2011 View on HN

It's not necessarily a question of backwards compatibility. Just being forced/pestered to update constantly is an anti-feature.