[TUHS] unix "awesome list"

[clemc@ccc.com (Clem Cole)]

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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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