From: John Alvord <jalvo@mbay.net>
To: "Robert White" <rwhite@casabyte.com>
Cc: "Stephan von Krawczynski" <skraw@ithnet.com>, <wa@almesberger.net>,
       <miquels@cistron-office.nl>, <linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org>
Subject: Re: [OT] Re: Troll Tech [was Re: Sco vs. IBM]
Date: Thu, 26 Jun 2003 15:48:31 -0700
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On Thu, 26 Jun 2003 14:39:01 -0700, "Robert White"
<rwhite@casabyte.com> wrote:

>How *exactly* does that (your below) jibe with your dismissal of the
>arguments of people like myself who do, in literal fact, have twenty years
>of experience in the field of software design and innovation and the
>*business* of selling that design and innovation to others?
>

In my experience there is very little innovation per se in software
products. 99.99% of the work is refining, developing, marketting,
supporting the product.  A VP of one of my former employers would go
on and on about legacy code and how high the support costs were. She
never acknowledged my point -- that every product written becomes
legacy code the instant it escapes from development. You need to
recognize that going in and avoid markets that won't pay for the
support burden. That cost can be mitigated by good development
practices and good people, but it can't be eliminated.

Microsoft as an innovator, that's a new one on me!! I can't think of a
single product they innovated on. Their first was a Basic for the
8080... it was based on the specs for the Dartmouth College Basic
which was delivered by timesharing mainframes. Microsoft's genius lies
in marketting, positioning, perserverance and sheer guts. I grant them
a lot but not product innovation. 

There is a lot to be learned from Microsoft... a great innovative
product is not sufficient to build an empire. Innovations are directly
related to new environments... like animals evolving as ecosystems
change. And new environments don't appear very often. So refining,
reimplementing, and supporting us what you need to succeed as a
business.

John Alvord

p.s. I have left Larry off the copy list.
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