Working for a software publisher in the licensing business is like working in a retirement house with the elderly.

They will die soon.

I would take care of them, make sure that they are happy and enjoy the most out of their remaining days, and they will die soon.

I share their concerns, I try to relieve them from the occasional pain, but I let them die.

We have fun together, I help them with their short-term projects, and we spend time together as if it was the greatest of their life. But they will die.

We may not share the same philosophical views; we may even have conflicting morals; but I display a tolerant attitude because they will die soon, not I, because abstract conflicts is not the nicest thing to live at the end of their life, and foremost because I could use their experience, too.

And I am happy that they die soon; for they are not needed any more and would become soon a burden if we let them live too long.

And yet there is hope. Because software companies can change, and rise from their ashes. They die, and then they are born again, younger. IBM did it. Apple did it. I wish I could witness it for myself.