- Nov 5, 2011
- 5,855
.
The biggest software delusions of the last decade topic here ..
The biggest software delusions of the last decade : by Daniel Pistelli on rcecafe.net : http://rcecafe.net/?p=183
QUOTE:
'… or how Microsoft is trying to lose its dominant position.
It’s not only about Microsoft of course. Other big companies have made mistakes, but Microsoft is surely the company which has made most of them in the last ten years. Surely it’s because they can afford it: others can’t make that many without filing for bankrupcy.' ..
' .. most dumb decisions ..' with:
Managed development:
'This is probably the root of most dumb decisions. When Java came out it was appealing to many. Microsoft was already at that time a follower in its decisions and started its .NET development. .NET itself wasn’t a bad idea. At the time I thought it was going to be a part of the ecosystem just like native applications and replacing the obsolete and buggy Visual Basic 6.
Nowadays the reality which we can see is that Microsoft wants their managed technology to take over and become the preferred solution for Windows. From what I could grasp reading some articles about Windows 8 is their interest forcing Desktop developers to write applications that could easily be run/ported to tablets and phones.' ..
Garbage Collection:
'While this may seem bound to managed and scripting languages, it isn’t. Some native languages have garbage collectors as well and it has been the big trend in the first years of 2000. Garbage collection makes a lot of sense in scripting languages, but there it should be confined. I fully made up my mind years ago about this topic and it boils down to 2 very simple conclusions.
1) A garbage collector doesn’t make sense as long as every memory leak is smaller than the memory wasted by a garbage collector.
2) It’s bad for shaping the mentality of developers. Memory is a resource just like a file or a socket. Would you expect someone else to close a file you opened?
The second point is in my view self-evident and the first one is easy to demonstrate. Just consider the large object heap discussed in the previous paragraph and the quotation of the article related to that:
“You’d have thought that memory leaks were a thing of the past now that we use .NET. True, but we can still hit problems. We can, for example, prevent memory from being recycled if we inadvertently hold references to objects that we are no longer using.”
Which actually would be a leak. Just because the framework will free the memory once the application terminates, doesn’t mean it’s not a leak.' ..
XAML:
'While XML is an ideal solution to represent a hierarchy like a UI, things have gotten out of hand with XAML. First thing: it’s the ugliest thing I have ever seen ..'
Silverlight:
'I don’t know whether it is/will be much used.' ..
Windows Phone 7:
'Windows Phone 7 is highly recommended to anyone who wishes to start developing.
On an iPhone.' ..
Cloud computing:
'This word has acquired so many meanings that if Hegel was still alive he would use it too.
Which also means that it makes no longer sense using it if not for marketing purposes like Apple just did with its iCloud. Which actually is just a service like DropBox with a fancy name.
The range of meanings the word has acquired includes basic server technology, synchronization, distributed computing, web based applications (which probably is the most authentic meaning).
If web based applications are meant, then clearly the idea is stupid. Having every application on a remote computer is not only the worst thing for privacy, but is also slow, costly (for the company), inefficient and a sucky user experience.' ..
Simplicity:
'This paradigm has just got to go.
I have installed Ubuntu on the computer of some extremly unskilled people. And they use it. They browse the web, check their email, watch movies, write documents with Libre Office and even move files to/from memory sticks.
If these people can do it, then I can probably train a penguin to use Ubuntu.
Granted that I’d probably need to find a larger keyboard for his fins; but that’s all.
There’s just no more room for simplifying without removing functionality. On the other hand, Microsoft would simplify my life a great deal if they finally decided to implement a search functionality in the list of installed services (and that’s not the only place where a search functionality is lacking). Or by introducing a file search that actually has any kind of purpose. That would simplify _my_ life a lot, thank you.' ..
Bing, MSN Live, failed Yahoo acquisition:
'I can’t put it better than Charlie Brooker once did (please read with British accent):
“I suppose, you know, theoretically you could watch the royal wedding on ITV not the BBC, just like you could search for things on Bing instead of Google, or eat Daddy’s ketchup instead of Heinz. It’s possible, but it’s not _normal_. It borders on perversion. You could watch it on Sky News but that’s like searching Hellman’s Ketchup on Yahoo.” ' ..
Social networks (Facebook, Google+, Wave, MySpace etc.):
'Yes, I know that Facebook is an immense business right now. But I have always seen it as a bubble and I hope for everybody’s sake that it really is. Maybe one day humanity will realize that putting sensitive information in the hands of a corporation is not such a smart idea. Or maybe not. Anyway the topic has deserved to be in the list, because an infinity of money has been invested (by others) into social networks with no results.'
Conclusions:
'As we have seen other companies do mistakes, but no one as much as Microsoft. A company behaving like a retarded giant who is buffled by others passing by him running and who starts its running motion in an attempt to catch them without noticing that the strings of his shoes have been tied together.
More money, more marketing. Never passion or care. It has always to be the latest toy. Then as soon as it has been played with for two seconds it is thrown to the ground and then again focusing on the next toy.' ..
.. and read 31 or more responses ..
Thank you Daniel Pistelli for this very good read!
.
The biggest software delusions of the last decade topic here ..
The biggest software delusions of the last decade : by Daniel Pistelli on rcecafe.net : http://rcecafe.net/?p=183
QUOTE:
'… or how Microsoft is trying to lose its dominant position.
It’s not only about Microsoft of course. Other big companies have made mistakes, but Microsoft is surely the company which has made most of them in the last ten years. Surely it’s because they can afford it: others can’t make that many without filing for bankrupcy.' ..
' .. most dumb decisions ..' with:
Managed development:
'This is probably the root of most dumb decisions. When Java came out it was appealing to many. Microsoft was already at that time a follower in its decisions and started its .NET development. .NET itself wasn’t a bad idea. At the time I thought it was going to be a part of the ecosystem just like native applications and replacing the obsolete and buggy Visual Basic 6.
Nowadays the reality which we can see is that Microsoft wants their managed technology to take over and become the preferred solution for Windows. From what I could grasp reading some articles about Windows 8 is their interest forcing Desktop developers to write applications that could easily be run/ported to tablets and phones.' ..
Garbage Collection:
'While this may seem bound to managed and scripting languages, it isn’t. Some native languages have garbage collectors as well and it has been the big trend in the first years of 2000. Garbage collection makes a lot of sense in scripting languages, but there it should be confined. I fully made up my mind years ago about this topic and it boils down to 2 very simple conclusions.
1) A garbage collector doesn’t make sense as long as every memory leak is smaller than the memory wasted by a garbage collector.
2) It’s bad for shaping the mentality of developers. Memory is a resource just like a file or a socket. Would you expect someone else to close a file you opened?
The second point is in my view self-evident and the first one is easy to demonstrate. Just consider the large object heap discussed in the previous paragraph and the quotation of the article related to that:
“You’d have thought that memory leaks were a thing of the past now that we use .NET. True, but we can still hit problems. We can, for example, prevent memory from being recycled if we inadvertently hold references to objects that we are no longer using.”
Which actually would be a leak. Just because the framework will free the memory once the application terminates, doesn’t mean it’s not a leak.' ..
XAML:
'While XML is an ideal solution to represent a hierarchy like a UI, things have gotten out of hand with XAML. First thing: it’s the ugliest thing I have ever seen ..'
Silverlight:
'I don’t know whether it is/will be much used.' ..
Windows Phone 7:
'Windows Phone 7 is highly recommended to anyone who wishes to start developing.
On an iPhone.' ..
Cloud computing:
'This word has acquired so many meanings that if Hegel was still alive he would use it too.
Which also means that it makes no longer sense using it if not for marketing purposes like Apple just did with its iCloud. Which actually is just a service like DropBox with a fancy name.
The range of meanings the word has acquired includes basic server technology, synchronization, distributed computing, web based applications (which probably is the most authentic meaning).
If web based applications are meant, then clearly the idea is stupid. Having every application on a remote computer is not only the worst thing for privacy, but is also slow, costly (for the company), inefficient and a sucky user experience.' ..
Simplicity:
'This paradigm has just got to go.
I have installed Ubuntu on the computer of some extremly unskilled people. And they use it. They browse the web, check their email, watch movies, write documents with Libre Office and even move files to/from memory sticks.
If these people can do it, then I can probably train a penguin to use Ubuntu.
Granted that I’d probably need to find a larger keyboard for his fins; but that’s all.
There’s just no more room for simplifying without removing functionality. On the other hand, Microsoft would simplify my life a great deal if they finally decided to implement a search functionality in the list of installed services (and that’s not the only place where a search functionality is lacking). Or by introducing a file search that actually has any kind of purpose. That would simplify _my_ life a lot, thank you.' ..
Bing, MSN Live, failed Yahoo acquisition:
'I can’t put it better than Charlie Brooker once did (please read with British accent):
“I suppose, you know, theoretically you could watch the royal wedding on ITV not the BBC, just like you could search for things on Bing instead of Google, or eat Daddy’s ketchup instead of Heinz. It’s possible, but it’s not _normal_. It borders on perversion. You could watch it on Sky News but that’s like searching Hellman’s Ketchup on Yahoo.” ' ..
Social networks (Facebook, Google+, Wave, MySpace etc.):
'Yes, I know that Facebook is an immense business right now. But I have always seen it as a bubble and I hope for everybody’s sake that it really is. Maybe one day humanity will realize that putting sensitive information in the hands of a corporation is not such a smart idea. Or maybe not. Anyway the topic has deserved to be in the list, because an infinity of money has been invested (by others) into social networks with no results.'
Conclusions:
'As we have seen other companies do mistakes, but no one as much as Microsoft. A company behaving like a retarded giant who is buffled by others passing by him running and who starts its running motion in an attempt to catch them without noticing that the strings of his shoes have been tied together.
More money, more marketing. Never passion or care. It has always to be the latest toy. Then as soon as it has been played with for two seconds it is thrown to the ground and then again focusing on the next toy.' ..
.. and read 31 or more responses ..
Thank you Daniel Pistelli for this very good read!
.
