Should Educators Expect Reliable and Backward Compatible GIS Software?

"Two adult Guinea Pigs (Cavia porcellus)"
 by Sandos at Wikipedia. Licensed
under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Commons.

Matthew Wilson recapped a panel titled Geographic Education in a Modern World from the NACIS meeting held last month in Minneapolis. There are some interesting tidbits including one about expectations from GIS software providers.