So, this is a terrible UI for the feature, but there is an X button which hides the dialog. Apparently it used to be called "snooze", from this blog post [0]. All in all, it's really gross that they put an "upgrade to not update" logo on the button, but the actual behavior and the underlying reasons for it make sense. Supporting older versions is hard, if you are going to indefinitely ban a version, it's going to increase the burden of support on Docker, so they make it a pro feature.
It's a desktop app. There's absolutely no obligation for them to support anything. Server side, they can just deprecate APIs, and whatever chat/forum support they have can refuse to support outdated versions. They can even charge for it! This is how most companies go about it.
This is nothing more than desperation and lack of ideas on how to generate money, which is very unfortunate.
A more honest route would be just to charge for the app, charge for premium support, or come up with new Pro features by collaborating with the existing user base. This here is just lazy.
Or they could have done the same as many paid programs: charge money for updates. Instead they choose to do the opposite, which makes one wonder how they came to the conclusion that not updating is more desirable for their users.
Paying to not update is usually called "extended support." I belive it's not that rare and I think in enterprise even more common than in consumer software.
The reason, I believe, is that upgrading creates cost for the user, while maintaining older versions creates cost for the maintainers.
Extended support implies them having to actually support something, providing security updates for it and taking extra care of the version. Docker could charge for extended support, charge for a LTS version, and even turn features they'd would otherwise deprecate into premium features.
This here is merely attempting to prevent the user from running an unsupported version on their own machine. Software tends to be about "solving user's problems". The only problem this "anti-feature" is solving is one of its own creation.
1. Pay for updates (or "Enterprise" features), which implies there's extra value to be had moving up (the new leased car every 2 years model)
2. Pay for extended support after official EOL (the "does anyone know Cobol?" model)
3. New version, support DD-dates for older versions, stuff may stop working and you are on your own (That Windows ME box with all your MP3s in the basement)
This situation is some sort of forced #2. I don't know of any company that has done this without still offering #3.
> Paying to not update is usually called "extended support."
I haven't seen anyone demanding extended support, people just want to click "No" without having to pay for that privilege. No support, no extra sauce, just a button for the users who don't want to risk breakage in that moment.
Considering how updates randomly break things and wreck volumes and images my only assumption is that this is ransomware similar to how Windows updates operates
I don’t know how I did it, but I somehow managed to stay in one Docker desktop version (2.1, I believe) for over a year, then I had to update to fix a bug and suddenly Docker started automatically installing upgrades for me. That sounds like a change to me.
[0] https://www.docker.com/blog/changing-how-updates-work-with-d...