I started my career in a different era, developing software applications for DOS, Mac computers and Unix systems.
Software development was complex in those days. For example, we had to establish special code to render screens on three different platforms. Things became easier with the introduction of HTML and browsers, but the functionality was limited. Today, while we still have some complexities with multiple browsers and devices, developing software is much easier and faster and delivered at higher quality. The results are a huge proliferation of commercial and proprietary applications. Further, there are now hundreds of thousands of mobile applications that live in the cloud and scale easily as well as collaborative applications that link multiple data sources and services.
The bottom line is, as software matured, development tools simplified and expertise proliferated globally, the software industry changed, grew and made impacts across all industry segments.