Messages in this thread | | | From | John Alvord <> | Subject | Re: [OT] Re: Troll Tech [was Re: Sco vs. IBM] | Date | Thu, 26 Jun 2003 15:48:31 -0700 |
| |
On Thu, 26 Jun 2003 14:39:01 -0700, "Robert White" <rwhite@casabyte.com> wrote:
>How *exactly* does that (your below) jibe with your dismissal of the >arguments of people like myself who do, in literal fact, have twenty years >of experience in the field of software design and innovation and the >*business* of selling that design and innovation to others? >
In my experience there is very little innovation per se in software products. 99.99% of the work is refining, developing, marketting, supporting the product. A VP of one of my former employers would go on and on about legacy code and how high the support costs were. She never acknowledged my point -- that every product written becomes legacy code the instant it escapes from development. You need to recognize that going in and avoid markets that won't pay for the support burden. That cost can be mitigated by good development practices and good people, but it can't be eliminated.
Microsoft as an innovator, that's a new one on me!! I can't think of a single product they innovated on. Their first was a Basic for the 8080... it was based on the specs for the Dartmouth College Basic which was delivered by timesharing mainframes. Microsoft's genius lies in marketting, positioning, perserverance and sheer guts. I grant them a lot but not product innovation.
There is a lot to be learned from Microsoft... a great innovative product is not sufficient to build an empire. Innovations are directly related to new environments... like animals evolving as ecosystems change. And new environments don't appear very often. So refining, reimplementing, and supporting us what you need to succeed as a business.
John Alvord
p.s. I have left Larry off the copy list. - To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/
| |