You don’t hate legacy software. You hate dilapidated software. Software with peeling wallpaper, holes in the roof, and a cracked foundation.

Linux is legacy software. Stable, consistent, maintained, and trustworthy. With software like that, you know where you stand.

Last year’s flash-pan JavaScript framework is already dilapidated. Who knows how many of its dependencies have disappeared from the web or what happened to its one maintainer? If it was a floor, you wouldn’t dare stand on it.

The same distinction applies to other legacy systems, not just software. There are start-ups that lasted less than a year and businesses that have stayed in operation for centuries. Castles older than the very idea of nationhood. Social media posts forgotten in five minute and scrolls dated back millennia. Regretted words and lifetimes of kindness.

Which will you leave to the world?

(Original post at vulpine.club.)