Backward compatible, forever

Tailscale's recent announcement of the Tailscale Community Projects highlights its dedication to maintaining a stable and reliable platform that prioritizes backward compatibility over constant upgrades, offering tools that seamlessly integrate with Tailscale and ensuring their longevity. The blog post critiques the prevalent "upgrade treadmill" in software development, where continuous upgrades are often necessary to avoid security vulnerabilities or incompatibility, leading to increased complexity and resource demands. Tailscale proposes a different approach by focusing on creating a secure environment where trusted users can access applications without the need for frequent upgrades, leveraging a stable platform that remains compatible over time. This philosophy is exemplified by Tailscale's commitment to never breaking client releases, supporting backward compatibility of public-facing APIs, and integrating security transparently, allowing applications to continue functioning securely without modifications. Tailscale's community projects, such as JIT accessbot, setec, tsidp, golink, and tclip, embody this approach by providing tools that are not frequently maintained but are fully supported and designed to keep working indefinitely, emphasizing ease of use and collaborative development.