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For starters, you're comparison is completely off with what Jason said. A business might need electricity, plumbing, or furniture to operate, but how are these

by sp4rki 16y ago

For starters, you're comparison is completely off with what Jason said. A business might need electricity, plumbing, or furniture to operate, but how are these the same as a website? Are you saying that a website is equal to a chair at your doctors clinic? Saying a website is the same as utilities and structural needs of a physical space is a bit irresponsible. Second, what does whatever 'software' tools you use or if you're a developer/engineer have to do with a company being in the software business? They're not mutually inclusive, nor exclusive for that matter. Most businesses with a website are in the software business the same way most businesses with personnel that deals with clients are in the customer relations business and the same way most businesses with a product are in the marketing business. Using whatever tools you use to create a piece of software which you later put at your clients disposal automagically enters your company into the world of the software business. Granted most companies have simple websites that you don't really need to give much thought to after launch as a company, but that doesn't exempt you from the fact that you're offering a service based on software the moment you put that website up.

notahacker 16y ago
Calling an HTML page "software" is stretching the definition of software to its extreme though; it's not so much akin to suggesting that businesses with client-facing personnel are in the customer relations business as suggesting that their mere ability to field a question puts them in the business of education. I'll buy the argument that operating an e-commerce facility so that customers' requirements being met and payments being received depends on some non-trivial lines of code have entered the software business though.
- sp4rki 16y ago
  I'd say it's the other way around. If you're working on an industry that would benefit from "teaching" your customers a thing or two, and you go ahead and answer each and every question, you'd be in the education business. Wether you use something as simple as an HTML page or something as complex a Rails stack is of no consequence to the fact that the end user is still interacting with a computer, programs, and data. Hell I've seen some programs back in the day which where made just to display a box of with text. That's software also. Boring, small and useless software, but software nonetheless. The Irc warez scene used to be full with these type of ridiculous programs, though at least some had awesome 8 bit music.

by sp4rki 16y ago

notahacker 16y ago

Calling an HTML page "software" is stretching the definition of software to its extreme though; it's not so much akin to suggesting that businesses with client-facing personnel are in the customer relations business as suggesting that their mere ability to field a question puts them in the business of education. I'll buy the argument that operating an e-commerce facility so that customers' requirements being met and payments being received depends on some non-trivial lines of code have entered the software business though.

sp4rki 16y ago
I'd say it's the other way around. If you're working on an industry that would benefit from "teaching" your customers a thing or two, and you go ahead and answer each and every question, you'd be in the education business. Wether you use something as simple as an HTML page or something as complex a Rails stack is of no consequence to the fact that the end user is still interacting with a computer, programs, and data. Hell I've seen some programs back in the day which where made just to display a box of with text. That's software also. Boring, small and useless software, but software nonetheless. The Irc warez scene used to be full with these type of ridiculous programs, though at least some had awesome 8 bit music.