Let's hear it for old software

Jason Snell:

So does it matter that I use Movable Type on this site? Probably not, since the entire point of the site is the content on the pages, not how it was made. It strikes me, though, that the analogy of software being like pop music is even more apt than I thought. In the App Store, we see apps that become hits and climb the charts. Is this because it’s a natural way to think of software, or because the iTunes infrastructure was built for music sales and then adapted to cover software too?

I was flabbergasted to learn via an excellent recent episode of The Talk Show that Jason Snell, late of Macworld, had launched his indie site Six Colors on Movable Type, the all-but-forgotten blog platform that runs this site. But he makes some excellent points, not least that:

1. It still works great
2. If you know how to use it, why shift?
3. It has a database format that makes it relatively easy to get content out, if you ever do need to move.

Old software has its place, within limits. I can’t help loving this analogy, though:

Not only is Movable Type uncool (the equivalent of ’80s hair metal), but the language it’s written in, Perl, is supremely uncool. Like, New Kids on the Block uncool.

Well, that explains it. It matches my taste in music perfectly…