Dead Tech Will Outlive Today's Stacks

05 Nov 2025 #coding

Every single job I’ve had has involved migrating a legacy app.

At my last full-time job, it was a WebForms app to manage hotels. First, they tried to modernize it by embedding modules powered by Bootstrap and Knockout.js into the main app. Then, React applications powered by ASP.NET Core API, still hosted within the main WebForms app. Management daydreamed of ditching the old WebForms app. But nah! Mission impossible. It had too much old code entangled with the new code. A zombie that refused to die.

Currently, I’m working on a WebForm app migration from VB.NET to Blazor. We fear Microsoft will deprecate Blazor before we finish the migration. Most likely, WebForms and VB.NET will still be around, seeing dozens of other languages and tools die.

Here I’m talking about WebForms applications. But it’s the same story with jQuery, PHP, and more “dead” languages and tools.

They’re dead depending on who you ask. The StackOverflow developer survey in 2025 registered 23.4% of respondents still using jQuery and ~8% using VBA/VB.NET. That doesn’t seem dead at all.

A business can’t wait for a new application

It’s tempting to rewrite legacy applications. We rebuild all the context, business rules, and constraints, which makes us confident in the code we’re writing.

Often, rewriting isn’t an option. Legacy code runs “successful” businesses. A business can’t stop while the new system is built. And paying off technical debt doesn’t guarantee more money.

Sylwia Laskowska puts it clearly on jQuery Will Outlive Half of Today’s JavaScript Frameworks:

You don’t get paid to build shiny new things. You get paid to keep existing things alive without breaking production.

Legacy code is code that simply works.

New coders don’t dream of working with “dead” languages and tools. I know! I thought I was going to work only with brand-new tools. But legacy code taught me more than any coding course, like navigating large codebases without any documentation or anyone to ask. That’s why it’s in my book, Street-Smart Coding: 30 Ways to Get Better at Coding.

Grab your copy of Street-Smart Coding here. That’s the roadmap I wish I had when I was starting out.