Another example would be the removal of the “OtherOS” feature (e.g. Linux) from the PS3. Sony initially promoted the feature but then removed it during an update after it was used for piracy.
Minor quibbles with some of the points. Amazon refunded the customers' money for the deleted books, so it wasn’t quite a total loss. And iWork feature regressions may be annoying, but damn. Practically every release of OpenBSD drops some feature that used to work. Sometimes intentionally, sometimes not. Inevitably, two years later somebody upgrades and complains that the deleted feature is critical to them. That’s software.
I think there’s a point to be made about the extent you can own a product that is under constant remote radio control, but the idea that software upgrades are strictly monotonically increasing in functionality has never been true.
Another example would be the removal of the “OtherOS” feature (e.g. Linux) from the PS3. Sony initially promoted the feature but then removed it during an update after it was used for piracy.
Minor quibbles with some of the points. Amazon refunded the customers' money for the deleted books, so it wasn’t quite a total loss. And iWork feature regressions may be annoying, but damn. Practically every release of OpenBSD drops some feature that used to work. Sometimes intentionally, sometimes not. Inevitably, two years later somebody upgrades and complains that the deleted feature is critical to them. That’s software.
I think there’s a point to be made about the extent you can own a product that is under constant remote radio control, but the idea that software upgrades are strictly monotonically increasing in functionality has never been true.