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We live in a world of 'ship MVP, gather customers, exit' Of course the developer experience is going to be front and center, when you're trying to start a new

We live in a world of 'ship MVP, gather customers, exit' Of course the developer experience is going to be front and center, when you're trying to start a new product and don't want to invest actual money into it for real developers, you need something quick and dirty to move the project along. I'm firmly in the camp that javascript 'webapps' are crap and make the web less web-like, the web I came to enjoy. I reluctantly admit that the ship has sailed and I enjoy the web less now.

chillacy 8y ago
Customers are somewhat complicit too, by choosing buggy products with more features over stable products with less. It turns out having a buggy product is still more desirable than not having the product at all. Also if asked to put a price on stability or performance... I suspect that number is going to be smaller than necessary.
- linuxftw 8y ago
  I think the take away lesson is: Don't write great software, have a great sales team. At least, that seems to be the sentiment of all the failure stories posted around these parts.
  - TheHegemon 8y ago
    Working in enterprise software I unfortunately agree with that statement. Our product is terrible and yet we can signing all of these giant contracts. It is a bit disheartening to realize as long our stuff "almost works" and we keep pushing out features then we will keep growing.
    - linuxftw 8y ago
      > Our product is terrible and yet we can signing all of these giant contracts. It is a bit disheartening to realize as long our stuff "almost works" and we keep pushing out features then we will keep growing. If you have an enterprise support model for your product, client turnover would be a leading indication of how successful the software really is. High renewals and good margin is a successful software product. Whether or not the companies that buy it are completely wasting their money doesn't seem to matter much as long as they all don't go belly up at the same time. It's also important to realize, if your company is so bad, yet getting so many contracts, how bad could those other companies actually be? The answer is: really, really bad. Fortunately, the IT industry as a whole has convinced the entire world it needs to 'go digital' or their competitors are going to beat them to the market with their 'data analytics.' While it's probably true for many businesses, I think the vast majority is companies wanting to appear cool and hip.
      - flukus 8y ago
        > client turnover would be a leading indication of how successful the software really is Not necessarily, after the original investment and installation there is a least one person and possible several higher ups with a vested interest in the project being a success and ending the support would make them look bad. Going through all that again and replacing your software won't happen until a new batch of managers champion the cause and will possibly happen even if your software is best in class. I think a better measure would be their willingness to adopt other products your company builds.
toastal 8y ago
There are just as many garbage native applications. There's no good reason a good app can't be built on web technologies. At least with the web, the app is going to work cross-platform and be sandboxed.

chillacy 8y ago

Customers are somewhat complicit too, by choosing buggy products with more features over stable products with less. It turns out having a buggy product is still more desirable than not having the product at all. Also if asked to put a price on stability or performance... I suspect that number is going to be smaller than necessary.

linuxftw 8y ago
I think the take away lesson is: Don't write great software, have a great sales team. At least, that seems to be the sentiment of all the failure stories posted around these parts.
- TheHegemon 8y ago
  Working in enterprise software I unfortunately agree with that statement. Our product is terrible and yet we can signing all of these giant contracts. It is a bit disheartening to realize as long our stuff "almost works" and we keep pushing out features then we will keep growing.
  - linuxftw 8y ago
    > Our product is terrible and yet we can signing all of these giant contracts. It is a bit disheartening to realize as long our stuff "almost works" and we keep pushing out features then we will keep growing. If you have an enterprise support model for your product, client turnover would be a leading indication of how successful the software really is. High renewals and good margin is a successful software product. Whether or not the companies that buy it are completely wasting their money doesn't seem to matter much as long as they all don't go belly up at the same time. It's also important to realize, if your company is so bad, yet getting so many contracts, how bad could those other companies actually be? The answer is: really, really bad. Fortunately, the IT industry as a whole has convinced the entire world it needs to 'go digital' or their competitors are going to beat them to the market with their 'data analytics.' While it's probably true for many businesses, I think the vast majority is companies wanting to appear cool and hip.
    - flukus 8y ago
      > client turnover would be a leading indication of how successful the software really is Not necessarily, after the original investment and installation there is a least one person and possible several higher ups with a vested interest in the project being a success and ending the support would make them look bad. Going through all that again and replacing your software won't happen until a new batch of managers champion the cause and will possibly happen even if your software is best in class. I think a better measure would be their willingness to adopt other products your company builds.

toastal 8y ago

There are just as many garbage native applications. There's no good reason a good app can't be built on web technologies. At least with the web, the app is going to work cross-platform and be sandboxed.