From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: robert@timetraveller.org (Robert Brockway) Date: Mon, 5 Feb 2018 16:57:52 +1000 (AEST) Subject: [TUHS] Windows roots and Unix influence (was Re: Happy birthday, Ken Thompson!) In-Reply-To: <59b04299e6f9cdd8c15f854030e1bacee3ed2ef3@webmail.yaccman.com> References: <59b04299e6f9cdd8c15f854030e1bacee3ed2ef3@webmail.yaccman.com> Message-ID: On Sun, 4 Feb 2018, Steve Johnson wrote: > Now things are a million times bigger and it feels like chaos has > become the accepted model for how we live...  I see it particularly Absolutely. It seems like no regard is given to reducing complexity anymore. I think the current path is unsustainable. Increased complexity results in diminishing returns in development work eventually stifling innovation. Time and time again I see people choosing overly-complicated solutions when, in many cases, a small shell script would suffice. A few years ago I was left to manage (as head of the operations team) a monstrosity of an application that seemed to have been designed with the express purpose of using all available components of AWS. I was able to show that there was no deterministic manner in which the application could be cold booted. In the event that it needed to be restarted the operations team was left to bring the entire system up, watch for errors and cycle components in random order until the errors stopped. I'm not kidding. Fortunately that application has been sent to the bit bucket, never to bother anyone again. Here's my prediction: In a few years some people (most likely sales droids) will start talking about simplicity in IT and presenting it as an amazing new concept which no one has thought of before. This will be very similar to the way that "the cloud" is sold today. Cheers, Rob