Comments on: How Google Might Lose In Software: Joel On Software

By: Graham

Graham — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 07:35:12 +0000

Not sure why Joel is comparing GMail to Lotus. Google has already lost in the web-based email space: remember Yahoo and Hotmail?

By: blah

blah — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 09:29:11 +0000

NewSDK is already here — Adobe’s Flex.

By: William Pietri

William Pietri — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 19:51:28 +0000

One of the possible differences is the rise of automated testing and other sorts of programmer support. These are made possible by the same massive growth in processor power Joel talks about.

With good automated tests and automated refactoring tools, it's possible to develop in such a way that rewriting or porting an application is much easier than it used to be.

That's the notion behind agile methods like Extreme Programming: if you keep your cost of change low, then you're more likely to be able to handle whatever comes along.

We'll see if GMail's engineers were smart enough to build that way.

By: Adam

Adam — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 18:06:06 +0000

But Joel's post isn't concerned with Moore's Law as it relates to processing speeds increasing, rather it's the increase in speed of the bandwidth (which at least in the US is no where near its limits).

Looking forward to watching this trend develop.

By: David McDonald

David McDonald — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 15:03:37 +0000

Joel’s posts are always thought provoking, and this one is no different. With Moore’s Law now supposedly nearing it’s limits, maybe the cycle Joel talks about may be broken soon?