Murdock: On the Importance of Backward Compatibility

“I’m often asked why I’m so obsessed with backward compatibility
and, as a result, why I’ve made the issue such a central part of
the LSB over the past year. Yes, it’s hard, particularly in the
Linux world, because there are thousands of developers building the
components that make up the platform, and it just takes one to
break compatibility and make our lives difficult. Even worse, the
idea of keeping extraneous stuff around for the long term ‘just’
for the sake of compatibility is anathema to most engineers.
Elegance of design is a much higher calling than the pedestrian
task of making sure things don’t break…”

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