[TUHS] unix "awesome list"
Clem Cole
clemc at ccc.com
Wed May 9 02:32:00 AEST 2018
On Tue, May 8, 2018 at 11:31 AM, Steve Johnson <scj at yaccman.com> wrote:
> Well, as I look to the future I see the whole approach we have to software
> running into a dead end. In fact, I think software is holding us back.
>
You might be right here, but where we disagree I think is economics. The
problem is that we can not afford to replace SW. As I like to point out,
Fortran still pays my salary -- why because all the data and codes that use
that data written since the late 1950s.
Its just worse in the commercial side. Word and Lookout/Exchange sucks -
but people use them and they are not going away. Think about the LISP
Machine or the CM1 - lots of people though they were 'better' for some
concept of goodness. But they failed in the end.
>
> ...
>
> Starting about 2000, this changed. Hardware was no longer offering
> increased speed. But what it was offering was massive parallelism. The
> response was to cling to the one instruction at a time model, introducing
> multicore and its attendant hardware complexity to try to cling to the
> previous model of programming. The hardware to make this possible is
> expensive and does not scale.
>
I agree but ... IMO its going to take a real Christensen disruption with a
new customer base. I just don't see that happening any time soon.
Without a new customer base to support the new technology, the economics
of the keeping the old running has and will continue to go forward.
>
> And it's exciting...
>
I agree and I'm a fan and cheering from the sidelines .... but I'm
skeptical of success because the economics don't play to success..
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