How Long Should Developers Support their Software?

When Apple’s Mac OS X “Snow Leopard” came out last weekend, many ran to their local Apple reseller to pick up their $29 copy. Upgrading to a new OS is always a fun occasion, usually. You get the latest features of the OS, refinements and of course, security patches – not to mention that “fresh PC” feeling. But there is one rather sizable caveat when it comes to upgrading… compatibility and support.

Once Snow Leopard was released, Adobe issued a release that said the company wouldn’t be officially supporting their CS3 (2007) software for use in the OS, and not surprisingly, many users were up in arms. After all, Adobe’s software isn’t exactly inexpensive, ranging from between $200 – $2500 depending on the product, and not everyone feels the need to upgrade with every new version. So it’s easy to understand why people were upset.

It’s important to note that the software functions just fine under Snow Leopard. It’s just the official support for CS3 (and likely other Adobe products) that’s not available. The debacle raises an interesting question, though. Just how long should developers continue to support their software, and can anyone really blame them for not supporting an OS that was released long after their product was?

Adobe software is expensive (but not for what it does), but this is an issue aside from money. Even if the software was $50 a pop, would there be such an uproar? With Windows 7 right around the corner, it looks like CS3 won’t be supported there either, so it will be interesting to see if Windows users are as vocal as Mac users on the subject.

“While older Adobe applications may install and run on Mac OS X Snow Leopard (v10.6), they were designed, tested, and released to the public several years before this new operating system became available,” said Adobe. “You may therefore experience a variety of installation, stability, and reliability issues for which there is no resolution. Older versions of our creative software will not be updated to support Mac OS X Snow Leopard.”