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Good software knows when to stop

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Re: Good software knows when to stop

#151

Post by john_strinlai »

JackSlateur wrote: post #149
HauntingPin wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Classic represents a different design philosophy. One that still appeals today. It has nothing to do with nostalgia. Or games like Project Gorgon wouldn't be so appealing to people.

So we are back to what I said earlier :p People do not want "classic": people want a "good" game that has some specific characteristics

>People do not want "classic": people want a "good" game that has some specific characteristics

as long as those "specific characteristics" are literally and exactly what classic wow is, sure.

Re: Good software knows when to stop

#152

Post by rambambram »

Also from 37signals, somewhere in their first book they talked about the importance of 'evergreen' things people always want, things like 'the speed of software'. As a junior dev I didn't really get the point or thought it was not that important. I browsed further in the book looking for other gems of wisdom, and this 'speed'-thing only stuck in my head for the wrong reason, thinking it was a little obvious for such clear writers with a solid vision.

Only 15 years later - now a couple of years back - I started to realize the importance of this. The apps on my smartphones seemed to get slower and slower by the year. The fast software experiences were a real joy amidst slow apps. I now have an appreciation for their opinion on 'evergreen' things like the speed of software.

Re: Good software knows when to stop

#153

Post by dguest »

I think Signal (the messenger) is an interesting example: by being free, open source, and privacy centered, there's automatically no room for ads and it's difficult to monetize. Also they have to be very careful adding new features for security reasons.

The result: very few features. Which is exactly what I want.

Re: Good software knows when to stop

#154

Post by carlosjobim »

thewebguyd wrote: post #89
paxys wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are basically describing all software ever shipped before webapps and online updates became a thing. Companies wrote software and sold them in boxes. You paid once and it was yours forever. You got exactly what was in the box, no more and no less. The company then shipped a new verson in a different box 1-3 years later. If you liked it enough, and wanted the new features, you bought the new box.

And people liked that model, see the huge backlash when Adobe went subscription for creative suite. I do wedding photography as a side hustle, I upgrade my camera maybe once every ~7 years. Cameras have largely been good enough since 2016 and the 5D Mark IV. I have a pair of R6 mk II that I'll probably hold onto for the next 10 years. Point being, Lightroom has more or less been feature complete for me for a very, ve…

How did Adobe manage to change your previous installation of Lightroom? If you bought it, can't you still use the version you bought?

Re: Good software knows when to stop

#157

Post by [deleted] »

ryandrake wrote: post #61
wenbin wrote: post #47

We should normalize "finished" software products that stop feature creep and focus strictly on bug fixes and security updates. It takes real courage for a builder to say, "It’s good enough. It’s complete. It serves the core use cases well." If people want more features? Great, make it a separate product under a new brand. Evernote and Dropbox were perfect in 2012. Adding more features just to chase new user growth of…

This is one of the biggest issues in software development: So few projects are willing to admit that they are finished. I can probably count on one hand how many software products I use every day that actually get better (or stay the same) on update. The vast majority of them peaked somewhere around v1.0, and are just getting worse every time the developer touches them.

[deleted]

Re: Good software knows when to stop

#158

Post by thewebguyd »

carlosjobim wrote: post #154
thewebguyd wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And people liked that model, see the huge backlash when Adobe went subscription for creative suite. I do wedding photography as a side hustle, I upgrade my camera maybe once every ~7 years. Cameras have largely been good enough since 2016 and the 5D Mark IV. I have a pair of R6 mk II that I'll probably hold onto for the next 10 years. Point being, Lightroom has more or less been feature complete for me for a very, ve…

How did Adobe manage to change your previous installation of Lightroom? If you bought it, can't you still use the version you bought?

Yes, but no support for CR3 files, only this time I didn't have the choice to buy a new standalone version, I had to subscribe.

Re: Good software knows when to stop

#159

Post by allthetime »

john_strinlai wrote: post #12

> Ignore feature requests — don't build what users ask for; understand the underlying problem instead not quite in the same area, but this advice reminds me of blizzard and world of warcraft. for years and years, people requested a "classic" WoW (for non-players, the classic version is an almost bug-for-bug copy of the original 2004-2005 version of the game). for years and years, the reply from blizzard was "you thin…

As always the answer is… both. We make things that people didn’t know they wanted, and then they have good ideas about them that we didn’t think of. A truly great product finds the balance between developer creativity and user satisfaction

Re: Good software knows when to stop

#160

Post by [deleted] »

JackSlateur wrote: post #149
HauntingPin wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Classic represents a different design philosophy. One that still appeals today. It has nothing to do with nostalgia. Or games like Project Gorgon wouldn't be so appealing to people.

So we are back to what I said earlier :p People do not want "classic": people want a "good" game that has some specific characteristics

[deleted]
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