Software That Lasts 200 Years by Dan Bricklin

An idea came to my mind while I was reading this article. Is the idea of operating a company specialized in fixing “all kinds of software problem” feasible? For non-technical users, when their computer is no longer functioning, they call support or help desk from the company where they bought the computer. But what if the company is no longer there? When our televisions broke down, we call some one to fix it no matter what the brand is. If the guy who came to my house happens to be not capable of fixing it, I just try to find another guy from the yellow book. Is this model applicable to software industry? Is this business profitable?

I like talking about software quality very much. It was always a struggle to me that software was all about “hurry upgrade”. Do it in a hurry, and hurry users to upgrade. Who would sell a product which could be used for more than 50 years (OK, 10 years) without any problem (problem brings money)? The company will disappear in 5 years if they keep selling this kind of (perfect) products. But is that true?

When building a software that lasts 200 years is profitable, then it might be the time to make quality first priority. Quality software is never an easy matter, but having such mindset is really important no matter whether we are reaching that stage or not.