11 ms·

I know it is petty and irrational but I judge the quality of a software project by how boring it looks, where boringness is better. The more it looks like some

by shiado 9y ago

I know it is petty and irrational but I judge the quality of a software project by how boring it looks, where boringness is better. The more it looks like some university professor's web 0.1 hand-coded HTML project circa 1993 the better. Just look at this sexy boring website, it tells you that things are going to work perfectly with no bullshit or corporate-speak included. https://gcc.gnu.org/ https://gcc.gnu.org/

andrewmcwatters 9y ago
I don't think it's petty or irrational. It signals to me that there are more important things than selling decal stickers and t-shirts. It says we don't care about exposing this technology to the largest possible crowd and diluting what can be produced with it. I love C and Lua, and both are untrendy, long-lasting languages that don't attract particular crowds, and it means that when I produce something with them, unlike the trendier side of software development, it will actually last and run 5 years from now. I think branding like this is a double edged sword. It says, "We're trendy and attractive, but established," and at the same time it says, "We guarantee you're going to love our mascot plushies and the high quality $15 decal stickers you're going to slap on your $1,299 MacBook Pro that you just got back from the Apple Store over a stuck key repair."
rainbowmverse 9y ago
Compare to clang's website, which has the same aesthetic and is half as busy (visually): https://clang.llvm.org/ https://clang.llvm.org/
- iaabtpbtpnn 9y ago
  The logo for LLVM is a big silver dragon
fermienrico 8y ago
I totally agree, the more boring, the better. Like Berkshire Hathway's website [1]. This is especially true for things like investment firms and programming languages. The fact that they don't spend any ounce of time/resources on branding itself is a cool brand. They don't need it and they don't give a shit. Now, I do not endorse a complete neglect for cohesiveness and consistency. In the case of Go, it has an interesting interplay between sophistication and fun - this was a perfect opportunity to make an xkcd style cartoony brand that conveyed both simultaneously. Instead what we got is an infuriating bullshit that looks like one of those stock logo/branding templates I can buy for $19.95. Sigh. [1] http://www.berkshirehathaway.com/ http://www.berkshirehathaway.com/

by shiado 9y ago

andrewmcwatters 9y ago

I don't think it's petty or irrational. It signals to me that there are more important things than selling decal stickers and t-shirts. It says we don't care about exposing this technology to the largest possible crowd and diluting what can be produced with it. I love C and Lua, and both are untrendy, long-lasting languages that don't attract particular crowds, and it means that when I produce something with them, unlike the trendier side of software development, it will actually last and run 5 years from now. I think branding like this is a double edged sword. It says, "We're trendy and attractive, but established," and at the same time it says, "We guarantee you're going to love our mascot plushies and the high quality $15 decal stickers you're going to slap on your $1,299 MacBook Pro that you just got back from the Apple Store over a stuck key repair."

rainbowmverse 9y ago

Compare to clang's website, which has the same aesthetic and is half as busy (visually): https://clang.llvm.org/ https://clang.llvm.org/

iaabtpbtpnn 9y ago
The logo for LLVM is a big silver dragon

fermienrico 8y ago

I totally agree, the more boring, the better. Like Berkshire Hathway's website [1]. This is especially true for things like investment firms and programming languages. The fact that they don't spend any ounce of time/resources on branding itself is a cool brand. They don't need it and they don't give a shit. Now, I do not endorse a complete neglect for cohesiveness and consistency. In the case of Go, it has an interesting interplay between sophistication and fun - this was a perfect opportunity to make an xkcd style cartoony brand that conveyed both simultaneously. Instead what we got is an infuriating bullshit that looks like one of those stock logo/branding templates I can buy for $19.95. Sigh. [1] http://www.berkshirehathaway.com/ http://www.berkshirehathaway.com/