OT: Why do people cling to outdated web authoring software long beyond it's shelf-life?

Your right on all points Nancy but I know the reasons...

Legacy browsers:

Not so much of an issue these days and going forward, especially with mostly mobile use there as well but if your building online applications or internal sollutions for business you still have to consider the businesses computer setup and even now, many big companies are 2-3 windows versions behind and network set to lock out installing software and running IE11 or even 10 and some cases 9 as the only browser.

The bigger problem is gathering data, not just to sell or use for profile in a "facebook" way but just to have a persona for a website or application to know who is doing what and what is working with your site or not to change and update and improve. Most browsers are increasingly preventing you getting the information you need to do digital marketing and just improving the website/application.

In terms of develoeprs not switching software:

In general I get it. You have a workflow and you can be busy so learning new software and workflows and switching to it could take people time or just the setup, the change, the tools you may need to change too as well as a result can spiral a little but so it can be overwellming for some - so they dont, and others they just do not think they can afford the time too.

There is a large chunk though, especially for me in the Adobe space in terms of coding and web are stuck in the past using software Adobe are continuing and while adding modern features are still aimed at old concepts and old methods.

Seeing some of the Iframe chat earlier in the year and some of the CSS answers to some questions in the Dreamweaver forum was quite "eeek" for me for example.

But change can be good but the transition can be challinging for many.

It is 100% annoying for the transition for me than anything else but I am always looking at the optimum workflow in all things. Same with hardware, best mouse that will tick the boxes, I am looking at change with mechanical keyboards, which switches will suit my coding workflow the best and so on. I always want to be optimal.

OT: Why do people cling to outdated web authoring software long beyond it's shelf-life?

Could it be that these are the current users of Dreamweaver? I come across many ex-Dreamers on the other forum.

Q: Why do people cling to outdated web authoring software long beyond it's shelf-life?

A: Because it still works.

Aside from a couple small items that have been truly deprecated, removed and no longer function in browsers, like the <blink> tag or Flash video, the old ways still (while ugly, old, and outdated) work. Sites still render as expected using deprecated methods and "obsolete use css instead" atttributes.

As long as the old code is still rendered as expected by browsers, people are still going to keep using it.

It really is as simple as that.

If browsers would drop all the backward compatibility they have built in, people would be forced to move away from the old ways. If there were massive rendering issues with old doctypes and obsolete attributes, or giant intrusive "this website is coded with obsolete garbage" style messages popping up on every visit, the willingness to use archaicware would dissolve.

But there's not. 

Without that, people are still going to say "good enough" and keep plugging along with what they have, especially the hobbiests and single-site editors.

It's human nature, with boatloads of examples across all aspects of life.

Developers have long since dropped Dreamweaver and even designers are being weaned away from Dreamweaver.

All I could think when I read this post was, 'well finally'.

I agree with Os, but I have to say that Dw has been 'outdated' for years. In many ways Dw CS6 is still better than any CC version, especially if one knows how to write extensions that can update code hints, (etc). That said adobe never wanted Dw, (and many others associated with Dw also).

I would be surprised if Dw gets more than just maintanance updates in the future, as its user base is the casual developer, and no serious developer, (who knows what they are doing) will pay for a CC subscription, (another possible reason for not using Dw), after all fireworks and Ps CS6 offer as much as any CC version when it comes to the web. So why pay for a CC subscription?

Assigning blame is pointless though, as the web has moved on faster than most people thought it would since mobile devices became available, and even though 'small and personal' web sites are still maintained and developed, they are no longer the real focus of internet development, (notice I said internet, and not web). Earning a living, (or making money, to put it bluntly) is what most people comming into web development now, are interested in, and that means developing for the internet, as a whole, and not just web sites for the publics use.

In fact I cannot see why anyone would build a web site themselves or pay someone to do so anymore. Small buisnesses have much easier and cheaper ways to get a web presence, and personal sites have facebook.

I share @osgood_'s vision and analysis.

It is true that for some participants in this forum, changing tools, but especially understanding the structural and fundamental change that this entails, can lead to a complex approach.

What to do?

Perhaps, in a first step, maybe simply help to solve, as well as possible and with the means available, the problem that led anyone to ask questions on this forum... whether it concerns Dreamweaver or not... in a second step, why not sketch a deeper answer by opening the hood, or lighter by directing them to online turnkey tools including WP, without being emotionally affected by the technology, whether it is futuristic or too old.

but in the end, it's up to everyone to refine their perspective, according to their needs, their means, and their context. and it is true that the tools offered by Adobe, as @AnnShelbourne points out, as well as a multitude of threads about the shortcomings of DW, add to the confusion, here on this particular forum.

I think the issue is a lot of contributors here are NOT professionals but somehow they have a necessity to undertake some minor web-development project/s infrequently, maybe for a personal project, a non-profit etc. They probably don't get paid and are doing it for a favour in most instances.  

I dont expect that category of consumer to know much about the web and its advances so they think the software/techniques that they have been using for 10+ years, for a few days a year, is still adequate and in a lot of cases it probably is if they dont know anything about web-development advanced techniques - most code created 10+ years ago will still show in a browser, be accessible on mobile or though not optimised for mobile.

I dont think this forum is the right place if you want to liaise with serious developers, its more like the Mickey Mouse web devlopment forum, sprinkled with a handful of more knowledgable contributors who get frustrated, obviously. 

You are on a mission to nowhere. The web has changed immeasurably over the last few years and its full of poor and bloated code now thanks to the rise and rise of automation, your wixs and webflows, squarespaces and frameworks etc. Rather than get frustrated I largely got out of the game.