Does quality suffer as programming becomes easier?

Software development has become very easy, especially for the web. You type in a line of code, refresh a web page and there are the results. Back in the good old days, coding was done on punched cards. After making a coding change, you waited long hours to see the results. This led to careful planning about code strategies, and code quality.

Working with younger software developers, I notice less emphasis on code quality. When a bug crops in, a developer changes a line or two and the behavior changes. However, this approach does nothing toward solving program problems that are dependent on a specific user behavior. I see more issues with software or web components that are "press this and that breaks".

Today's developer seems happy to rely on their users as beta testers to fix program bugs. I don't like the message that this sends for overall software quality. I'd like to see a little more time spent on code planning and quality testing, and a little less on repetitive "line changes".

Computer locally or centrally?

I am consulting for a company that has a difficult decision to make... continue using Microsoft applications and operating systems, or migrate to Linux and use server based applications. In this case we are evaluating Google Apps.

We are finding that a majority of the company's employees user their computers mostly (solely?) for word processing, spreadsheets, e-mail, and instant messenger. Certainly these users could use a Linux machine instead of a Windows-based machine.

Having centralized applications and documents has the advantage of being accessible anywhere. Still there is the fear of storing sensitive information on someone else's server.

When a decision is made, I will post a follow-up.