Ask HN: Which software company did you think could never fail but did?

#1

Post by question11 » Sat, Dec 25, 2021, 9:42 PM UTC

There have been a bunch I have witnessed. Novell, Wordperfect, Borland, Lotus, Sun Microsystems, & DEC (last too were mixed HW/SW).

Which are today's bunch that seem unstoppable that may disappear? Oracle? IBM? Facebook?

Re: Ask HN: Which software company did you think could never fail but did?

#2

Post by ggm » Sat, Dec 25, 2021, 9:47 PM UTC

You're asking TWO questions not one. I THOUGHT sun and Dec wouldn't disappear into other companies. I'm still really cross about Dec. I learned on a dec10 and operated 11 and 11/780 systems as well as decstations.

I THINK that a lot of sw dev tooling companies will get folded in. Atlassian for instance.

Intel isn't as strong as it needs to be but US govt support will probably keep it there.

Re: Ask HN: Which software company did you think could never fail but did?

#3

Post by uberman » Sat, Dec 25, 2021, 11:02 PM UTC

For me, the surprises were the deaths of Sun, DEC, and Silicon Graphics. Runners up might be Gateway, MySpace, and AOL

Re: Ask HN: Which software company did you think could never fail but did?

#4

Post by phendrenad2 » Sun, Dec 26, 2021, 12:15 AM UTC

Palm, Inc. Man those little devices were cool for their time. Not sure what happened. How did the shareholders agree to sell to HP? Did they really think HP stock was more valuable? Anyway, hindsight is 20/20.

Re: Ask HN: Which software company did you think could never fail but did?

#5

Post by garbagecoder » Sun, Dec 26, 2021, 1:03 AM UTC

Surprised no one mentioned Yahoo!

Re: Ask HN: Which software company did you think could never fail but did?

#6

Post by beachy » Sun, Dec 26, 2021, 1:41 AM UTC

IBM's already had an enormous slide from undisputed #1 so I don't think they seem unstoppable by any means.

Re: Ask HN: Which software company did you think could never fail but did?

#7

Post by andrei_says_ » Sun, Dec 26, 2021, 2:43 AM UTC

Google committed to “not be evil” and are continuously failing at it, despite employing some of the most brilliant people on Earth.

They are also failing more and more in providing useful search results - the top matches are now ads.

I hope “success” is not only measured by profit.

Re: Ask HN: Which software company did you think could never fail but did?

#8

Post by mikewarot » Sun, Dec 26, 2021, 6:22 AM UTC

I thought Borland was unstoppable, until they lost focus, and started chasing Microsoft instead of leading the field. Turbo Pascal was magic - compile times so short the program was running just after you hit F9. Compare that to an hour waiting for your program to compile in the queue on the VAX 11/780 in college.