Re: [PLUG] software choice

[Tobias DiPasquale <toby@cbcg.net>]

On Wed, 2003-11-19 at 11:19, William H. Magill wrote:
> I'm sorry, but that is a "learned behavior" and simply not true.
> 
> The attitude that the Computing Industry shouldn't expect things to 
> work is CRAP!

You're coming at this from a much more philosophical point of view than
I was. I was referring to the fact that software is never perfect and to
expect it to be so is simply setting yourself up for disappointment.
Being in the industry a long time, you probably already understand that
writing 100% correct non-trivial software is nearly impossible,
especially given the amount of time that engineers are commonly given to
do so. As well, the principles and science underlying software
engineering is also a lot less fleshed out and stable, thus leading to a
lot of flash-in-the-pan theories and crackpot methodologies, as with any
other new field.

Also, please don't think that the software industry is the only industry
where this is the case. Product defects, recalls and other such
engineering disasters are a regularity in all other engineering
disciplines as well. I couldn't have worse expectations than I do when
it comes to my cellphone service. Verizon certainly didn't "make it
work", AFAIC.


> And now they are upset because their "jobs" are being farmed out to 
> other
> coders who don't give a damm either and who happen to live in India.
> 
> If American Software writers produced quality products, they wouldn't 
> have
> to worry about "foreign competition," but since "its good enough" is the
> motto of the industry cheap labor can generate stuff that's "good 
> enough"
> cheaper than the expensive American's can.

This is incorrect. I have worked with plenty of Indian students, and
their skills are just as good (as a whole) as the American IT workforce
(mostly because they come here for their education). This yields a
similarly skilled workforce in India that will also work for much less.
Please don't think that this could have been avoided by just "writing
better software". To think so is to ignore global socioeconomic
behavior. While I agree that the malaise inherent in the IT industry
today is a plague that we must eliminate, I can't agree that we could
have prevented the farming of work out to cheaper economic regions. It
happens with every industry, eventually.


> Will the Open Source movement survive Linus? Probably not. Linux 
> definitely
> won't and without Linux entropy ensues and the "norm" reverts to 
> Redmond.

This is patently incorrect and ignores the origins and qualifications of
the Open Source community. Open Source, at its core, involves a bunch of
people who have an incentive to create quality software for the
community's use (motives include: personal education, stability,
performance, etc, etc). Business, on the other hand, has an incentive to
create software of sufficient quality that enough people will buy it to
keep them in business and growing. With expectations being what they
are, business is allowed to get away with creating poor software,
whereas the quality of Open Source software only improves over time.
Linus didn't start the Open Source movement (Richard Stallman did that)
and it won't end with him, either, as there will always be people who
are motivated by forces other than monetary gain.

-- 
Tobias DiPasquale, www.cbcg.net
88FA 30C9 1E63 CFE2 CBD8  37C4 DA1C E2BF 1D26 F036

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