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Good Software Takes Ten Years. Get Used To it.

joelonsoftware.com

11–20 of 29 posts

Re: Good Software Takes Ten Years. Get Used To it.

#11
post #8

Joel's using ubiquitousness as a metric of "good", not necessarily if it is liked.

And if you're running a software business, ubiquitousness = sales = successful = good. You can't care too much about some cranky geeks if tens of thousands of customers are paying you good money for the work you've done. (Don't take offense, I'm a cranky geek too :) )

Re: Good Software Takes Ten Years. Get Used To it.

#12
Just remember, this is from the slow release-feedback loop of desktop software. The distribution costs and time made it hard to iterate quickly. Web stuff is much quicker, but I'd still hesitate to say less than 3-4 years.

(yes, something can get put out in 3 months, but rich, full software takes longer. pg was still working on Viaweb after Yahoo bought them)

Re: Good Software Takes Ten Years. Get Used To it.

#13
post #4

Isn't it a bit ironic that Lotus Notes is given as an example to good software? I haven't met someone who doesn't hate it.

I think selling 55,000,000 copies of a software package (around $500 each I think) qualifies as at least one type of success, probably the kind of success that people around here wouldn't mind to have with their own products.

Re: Good Software Takes Ten Years. Get Used To it.

#14
post #4

Isn't it a bit ironic that Lotus Notes is given as an example to good software? I haven't met someone who doesn't hate it.

Hear hear. The Notes adoption curve he points to can be explained by other factors -- marketing, bundling, competition (or lack of it), etc.

Re: Good Software Takes Ten Years. Get Used To it.

#15
post #14
post #4

Isn't it a bit ironic that Lotus Notes is given as an example to good software? I haven't met someone who doesn't hate it.

Hear hear. The Notes adoption curve he points to can be explained by other factors -- marketing, bundling, competition (or lack of it), etc.

ok, let's hear your explanation then. Notes was pretty advanced for its day and big companies bought it because it actually did what it was supposed to do.

Re: Good Software Takes Ten Years. Get Used To it.

#16
post #4

Isn't it a bit ironic that Lotus Notes is given as an example to good software? I haven't met someone who doesn't hate it.

I haven't met someone who doesn't hate it.

I certainly have. And it led me to a little theory: that Lotus Notes' value was in enabling non-programmers to build a certain class of apps. If this is correct, then its value was pretty big (think of spreadsheets). It also explains why programmers hate Lotus Notes so much; systems built this way get messy very quickly (again, think of spreadsheets). But to dismiss the value to users is missing something big and important.

In other words, this dispute about "is Lotus Notes good software or garbage" is beside the point, because it's based on two different definitions of "good software". Software that helps users get things done that they can't easily otherwise do is certainly good by their definition even if it's the greatest garbagey kludge ever known.

(But I never used Lotus Notes, or even, as far as I know, touched a computer that had it installed... this is just based on stuff I've been told.)

Re: Good Software Takes Ten Years. Get Used To it.

#18
post #16
post #4

Isn't it a bit ironic that Lotus Notes is given as an example to good software? I haven't met someone who doesn't hate it.

I haven't met someone who doesn't hate it. I certainly have. And it led me to a little theory: that Lotus Notes' value was in enabling non-programmers to build a certain class of apps. If this is correct, then its value was pretty big (think of spreadsheets). It also explains why programmers hate Lotus Notes so much; systems built this way get messy very quickly (again, think of spreadsheets). But to dismiss the valu…

I read an interview with an IBM technical guy once who claimed that Lotus Notes was first and foremost a synchronization platform (desktop and server) and email was just kind of built on top of that..

Re: Good Software Takes Ten Years. Get Used To it.

#20
post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I haven't met someone who doesn't hate it. I certainly have. And it led me to a little theory: that Lotus Notes' value was in enabling non-programmers to build a certain class of apps. If this is correct, then its value was pretty big (think of spreadsheets). It also explains why programmers hate Lotus Notes so much; systems built this way get messy very quickly (again, think of spreadsheets). But to dismiss the valu…

I read an interview with an IBM technical guy once who claimed that Lotus Notes was first and foremost a synchronization platform (desktop and server) and email was just kind of built on top of that..

Well synchronization is still a big pain (Exchange server, anyone?) so if that's the problem they solved, then they deserved success.
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