[ploxiln]

Does it though? Does it do its job well? Does it have scheduled maintenance every evening for the mainframe batch job? Does it not handle non-ascii in names? Does it not have the perspective of knowing how much better it could be done, like webmail before gmail?

Just rewriting in new technology won't necessarily make it any better though, I'll definitely grant you that. I'm one of the crabby people who prefers technology from the early 2000s that grew out of unix technology of the 80s. But the really really old stuff can actually have meaningful limitations.

With regards to the medical industry, most of the software and systems are truly bad (in addition to being made with very very old tech). The reason IMHO is that due to all the regulation and all the money, all the power is on the political side rather than the technical side of the market, and it's a market where users don't choose what they use, administrators choose for them (and then don't have to use it).

(My mother is an MD)

[nommm-nommm]

Does it though?

Yes.

Does it do its job well?

Yes.

Does it have scheduled maintenance every evening for the mainframe batch job?

No, its used 24/7 and does not run on a mainframe.

Does it not handle non-ascii in names?

Who the hell cares? It doesn't have to.

Does it not have the perspective of knowing how much better it could be done, like webmail before gmail?

I don't even know what you mean. I think webmail before Gmail was great. Gmail is always changing its UI and confusing users. Gmail didn't bring anything to webmail except a ton of free storage.

The software is fine it doesn't have many big flaws and it operates in a space where people depend on it working right so they don't die. We still release new versions once in a while but its not too much work.