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You're right, it's all in the way you execute. But starting off with the word "clone" doesn't sound good. I'd say Google was "a take" on search engines like Al

You're right, it's all in the way you execute. But starting off with the word "clone" doesn't sound good. I'd say Google was "a take" on search engines like Altavista, Facebook "a take" on social networks like Friendster. They didn't start as "clones". Maybe it's just a matter of phrasing but I was surprised by the number of replies like "go ahead, clone it!". Being inspired by, revisiting... are words that sound better to me. Between his decision on cloning and the outsourcing, it doesn't bode well.

dkarl 16y ago
"Clone" doesn't sound bad to me coming from a programmer. Any programmer who is good enough to create an exact clone will find it psychologically impossible to do so. There's no way a programmer could complete a clone without thinking, "I can do better... they should have done it this way... it will be much better and more successful if I change this part." Maybe I'm wrong, though, and I'm probably naive. Are there any software clones that aren't just inferior knock-offs, implemented by cheap labor hired by someone who never intended to match the quality of the original? I wouldn't count any product that beats the original in any meaningful way, such as better support for a certain language.