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varun_chlast Sunday at 2:03 PM2 repliesview on HN

I’ve slowly grown to realize there’s some software you just don’t need to update. A static site generator (almost certainly) won’t have security issues as long as you control the input and the output is just a bunch of static files.

Unless the new version of the software includes some feature I need, I can be totally fine just running an old version forever. I could just write down the version of the SSG my site builds with (or commit it to source control) and move on with my life. It’ll work as long as operating systems and CPU architectures/whatever don’t change too much (and in the worst case scenario, I’m sure the tech exists to emulate whatever conditions it needs to run) Some software is already ‘finished’ and there’s no need to update it, ever.


Replies

dgroshevlast Sunday at 2:13 PM

There's a perfect term for this Patrick Dubroy coined: "cold-blooded software" https://dubroy.com/blog/cold-blooded-software/

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eloisantlast Sunday at 2:37 PM

Is there any static site generator where you specify the version you use, and the launcher will simply run the old binary that you want?

Like most build systems work, for example when you set a "rust-version" in Cargo.toml and only bump it when you explicitely want to. This way it will still use the older version on a fresh checkout.

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