Which developers are a safe bet for longevity.

[uOpt]

Topic seems interesting,especially knowing that many developers quit or will quit soon the business if world crisis continue 'longer'

Do you have some examples of developers who quit or will quit soon because of Corona?

Changes are that Corona is good for plugin developer business. It's for a stay-at-home hobby and you can even stay at home purchasing them (unless you 30th guitar). I hear music activity is up in Corona times.

[uOpt]

The worst case scenario is when a developer quits but his/her program/vst (that you cherish/find very useful) contains a time-bomb after which the product will stop working.

That is all software. Unless you have both the source code and also it comes with a true open source license.

A random binary will stop working eventually unless you build and maintain a time frozen system for it. And even then good luck if it needs a call home on (re-)activation.

[chk071]

Topic seems interesting,especially knowing that many developers quit or will quit soon the business if world crisis continue 'longer'

Do you have some examples of developers who quit or will quit soon because of Corona?

Changes are that Corona is good for plugin developer business. It's for a stay-at-home hobby and you can even stay at home purchasing them (unless you 30th guitar). I hear music activity is up in Corona times.

I would assume the same. And, at least u-he and Reason Studios stated that they are doing as well as always, and Reason Studios even had the best year since their inception. So, nope, I don't really think software companies are hit hard by Corona. Other industries (and especially the retail industry) suffer a lot, that's for sure, but, I don't think the software industry does in general.

[AnX]

Topic seems interesting,especially knowing that many developers quit or will quit soon the business if world crisis continue 'longer'

Do you have some examples of developers who quit or will quit soon because of Corona?

Changes are that Corona is good for plugin developer business. It's for a stay-at-home hobby and you can even stay at home purchasing them (unless you 30th guitar). I hear music activity is up in Corona times.

unless staying at home means being someone's carer, or looking after the kids and home schooling etc....

[VELLTONE MUSIC]

my mistake,i wrote 'many',meaning 'some',it will be nice if rising interest was fact,but unfortunately is not,most users are working people with other concerns right now,anyway don't wanna sound negative,probably only soap manufacturing rising sales these days :)Cheers

[deltadio]

The worst case scenario is when a developer quits but his/her program/vst (that you cherish/find very useful) contains a time-bomb after which the product will stop working.

That is all software. Unless you have both the source code and also it comes with a true open source license.

A random binary will stop working eventually unless you build and maintain a time frozen system for it. And even then good luck if it needs a call home on (re-)activation.

Thanks for your input, guess you're right, but it is more of a philosophical view given that most hardware and stand alone software will outlive our mortal coil. A time frozen system I did have in place, even with a backup mobo of exact same type; I am about to reinstall Windows XP on a different system to install the now pretty rare "HardSID Quattro" PCI card. The deliberate hardcoded time-bomb I have come across in the first years of VST Plugins and not just in demo versions but the collective intelligence of software piracy dealt with those lame shenanigans. Anyway, got my (legitimate) copies of Linplug Spectral and Camel Audio's Alchemy working today on a new DAW computer; kind of doubted it would work, given that for those developers "There on the willows we hung our harps" applies.

[Danilo Villanova]

Only open source software is good for long term. Linux here we come!

[chk071]

Only open source software is good for long term.

I'd suggest that you do some research to see how many Open Source projects actually are deader than dead. Open Source is anything but a warranty for longevity.

[frizzbee]

Only open source software is good for long term.

I'd suggest that you do some research to see how many Open Source projects actually are deader than dead. Open Source is anything but a warranty for longevity.

as common sense suggests, interest and demand are the key. if there's interest in the product then nothing beats open source. if there's no interest then the projects are dead, no matter if open or closed source.

[chk071]

Only open source software is good for long term.

I'd suggest that you do some research to see how many Open Source projects actually are deader than dead. Open Source is anything but a warranty for longevity.

as common sense suggests, interest and demand are the key. if there's interest in the product then nothing beats open source.

In terms of what? Longevity? Quality?

I'd argue that I don't know a single Open Source software which can beat the best proprietary software out there, in almost any area, especially professional applications. In terms of longevity, there is proprietary software which is supported and developed for a long time now. So, I really can't confirm what you are saying.

[uOpt]

Only open source software is good for long term.

I'd suggest that you do some research to see how many Open Source projects actually are deader than dead. Open Source is anything but a warranty for longevity.

Only if they are not interesting enough to attract a powerful enough following. What you need is the will to either do the work (of further maintenance and development) or the will to pay somebody to do it.

If the OSS project is too small or uninteresting it will die. However, the point is, nobody can prevent you from doing the work yourself. If it is commercial software you cannot.

[uOpt]

In terms of what? Longevity? Quality?

I'd argue that I don't know a single Open Source software which can beat the best proprietary software out there, in almost any area, especially professional applications. In terms of longevity, there is proprietary software which is supported and developed for a long time now. So, I really can't confirm what you are saying.

When it comes to klickibunti GUI applications, sure.

Programming languages and operating system kernels are pretty much in the hands of OSS now.

Because people choose tools that cannot be taken away from them.

[AnX]

I'm gonna go with Microsoft

[uOpt]

I'm gonna go with Microsoft

If they develop their stuff in a direction you don't like there is nothing you can do about it.

[chk071]

In terms of what? Longevity? Quality?

I'd argue that I don't know a single Open Source software which can beat the best proprietary software out there, in almost any area, especially professional applications. In terms of longevity, there is proprietary software which is supported and developed for a long time now. So, I really can't confirm what you are saying.

When it comes to klickibunti GUI applications, sure.

Which was what we're talking about.

I'm gonna go with Microsoft

If they develop their stuff in a direction you don't like there is nothing you can do about it.

Which is irrelevant for the original question, which was which developers are a safe bet for longevity. Anyway, I think it's safe to say that Windows 10 won't go anywhere.

Microsoft is a good example for that actually. I don't think there is another OS with such a good backwards compatibility. Holds true for their game consoles as well.