Actually no, I don't remember any time when software was better written than today. Early PC's picked up viruses from floppies and crashed all the time. The Morris worm took out most of the Internet accidentally in 1988. We had no encryption and little memory protection. By today's standards, there was little or no security back then.
We didn't have to upgrade software all the time only because most computers weren't directly connected to the Internet and because the Internet was a much smaller, safer place.
As the security threats have increased, software has gotten better. Mobile OSes are better sandboxed than PC's or workstations ever were. A Chromebook is pretty secure too. But the threats are getting worse.
Perhaps someday we will get the point where there is some critical software that's proven correct and no longer needs to change. But I think it will require open source hardware that doesn't change much either, and software that's written in newer, safer languages that make it easier to prove correctness.
That's not where we are today. People buy a new phone every 2-3 years, and they just came out with a new USB standard. When we get to the point where new phones are built using essentially the same the same components as old ones and the interconnects never change, perhaps things will slow down a bit and longevity might become a thing.
We didn't have to upgrade software all the time only because most computers weren't directly connected to the Internet and because the Internet was a much smaller, safer place.
As the security threats have increased, software has gotten better. Mobile OSes are better sandboxed than PC's or workstations ever were. A Chromebook is pretty secure too. But the threats are getting worse.
Perhaps someday we will get the point where there is some critical software that's proven correct and no longer needs to change. But I think it will require open source hardware that doesn't change much either, and software that's written in newer, safer languages that make it easier to prove correctness.
That's not where we are today. People buy a new phone every 2-3 years, and they just came out with a new USB standard. When we get to the point where new phones are built using essentially the same the same components as old ones and the interconnects never change, perhaps things will slow down a bit and longevity might become a thing.