From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Date: Sat, 6 Dec 2008 16:03:02 -0800 From: Roman Shaposhnik In-reply-to: To: Fans of the OS Plan 9 from Bell Labs <9fans@9fans.net> Message-id: <2B033310-CD79-4382-AA2C-5A823F15F531@sun.com> MIME-version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; delsp=yes; format=flowed; charset=US-ASCII Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT References: Subject: Re: [9fans] How to implement a moral equivalent of automounter Topicbox-Message-UUID: 5c3e7946-ead4-11e9-9d60-3106f5b1d025 On Dec 6, 2008, at 6:27 AM, erik quanstrom wrote: >> To some extent, the popularity of NFS (is there any NAS box >> that talks AFS?) and Linux is one big testament to the >> power of "good enough" or "worse is better". > > i really hate this meme. it doesn't mean anything. It depends on the point of view, I guess. To me its value is about juxtaposing two approaches to the design. Being a non-native English speaker the wording and metaphors don't bother me that much. Three essays helped me understand why software produced by different "schools of thought" is so drastically different: * Worse is better: http://www.jwz.org/doc/worse-is-better.html * On the fact that Atlantic Ocean has two sides: http://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/EWD/transcriptions/EWD06xx/EWD611.html * On the fact that most software is written on one side of the Atlantic: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s7ROTJKkhuI > imho, the reasons nfs is popular are mostly political Oh, come on! ;-) You sound like Bjarne now, complaining that James Gosling, hijacked OOP with tons of corporate support (which is somewhat true) and that people don't want to use C++ because Sun brainwashed them, not because it is the most convoluted language after ALGOL 68. > and logistical rather than technical. sun pushed nfs, That is true. But without NetAPP and others, that wouldn't be possible. > so saying calling nfs an example of "worse is better" implies > that using nfs is a technical decision. You seem to be interpreting worse-is-better quite differently from how I interpret it. To me it is all about reasoning about survival skills. And yes, I tend to agree with its main premise, that mediocracy usually has better survival skills. Nothing to do with technical aspects. Thanks, Roman.