About the survival of our Data ( when Apps die )

Posted by Lucine
Jun 10, 2025 at 04:55 PM

Wait what, so mac apps don’t work on older versions of macOS or iOS? This is total news to me, so what do devs have to do to keep the business running for a longer period then? Make significant changes for each new mac version? Approximately how much time can an average purchased software be expected to work in the iOS and macOS enviornment then? Apparently there has been a differently named OS every year in the recent years.
I was actually considering buying a macOS device just to use some of the most fascinating apps that get mentioned here but I pirate (unpopular opinion here, and understandably so) and a lot of those that can be found can be quite old. So they probably wouldn’t even work on the new mac minis. That’s really interesting, and something people seldomly mention for some reason.

A question for heavy mac users, to what extent has this been a problem and what do you usually do about this? Do you just buy the classic one-time purchase software, and the optional upgrades purchases cover the OS changes and make sure the application keeps working? What if you don’t want to or can’t purchase an upgrade and you need new hardware but then all your data is in the old OS that you can’t use in the hypothetical situation. Do you then just export content and find another app that can import satisfactory?
And maybe this can partially explain why the subscription model took over?

Andy Brice wrote:
>So what to do ? Use only apps from big companies like Apple or
>Microsoft , that are unlikely to disappear in the short/medium term ?
> >In my experience big companies kill off products as often as small
>companies, if not more so. Google is famous for killing products.
> >For longevity:
> >* Downloadable software beats web software. Web software dies the second
>the vendor turns off their server. Downloadable software might keep
>going for decades.
> >* Windows applications beat Mac applications. Microsoft puts a lot of
>effort into backward compatibility. Apple nukes their entire ecosystem
>from orbit every few years.
> >* Choose software that uses (or can export to) an text based standard
>format, such as CSV.
> >As a vendor I hope to keep my applications available to customers for
>some years after I stop selling them, if I possibly can.
> >And, if you are having to reshape/reformat data to move it from
>application to another, maybe consider my Easy Data Transform software.
>;0)
>https://www.easydatatransform.com
> >
> >