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It doesn’t matter. It is not the generally accepted definition of serverless. The meaning of a word is based on how it is generally used, and almost nobody me
by cle 7y ago
It doesn’t matter. It is not the generally accepted definition of serverless. The meaning of a word is based on how it is generally used, and almost nobody means this when they use the word “serverless”.
At this point trying to use the word in this way just creates a bunch of unnecessary confusion. Call it something else so we can move on to more important (and clear) discussions.
(Also there are a lot of assumptions and snarky comments in these responses about my age, which is quite rude and pretty elucidating.)
- PaulDavisThe1st 7y agoNo doubt you're a little surprised that hacker news doesn't contain that many posts about people breaking into computer information systems, amirite?
- aidenn0 7y agoThe page was written before that usage of the term serverless existed, and anyone reading it would have known exactly how it was meant. The "neo- vs classical-" note was added in 2018 because the distinction was being made. Is your argument that they should replace "serverless" with "runs without a server?" That seems like a strange position to me.
- ForHackernews 7y agoI think hosting providers marketing their managed servers as "serverless" is what has created confusion. Imagine if Uber called itself a "carless" taxi.
- mbreese 7y agoTheir usage of serverless predates all of these cloud application offerings. Just because a lot of people in this particular echo chamber like to think of serverless as meaning one thing, there are plenty of others who have been using the same word to mean something different for quite a bit longer. Moreover, the cloud as a service definition isn’t even accurate. There still is a server — it’s just not one the developer has to worry about.
- quasarj 7y agoFor sure. Everyone knows hackers are criminals now. So why are we all here on a public criminal forum discussing our crime?
- cmroanirgo 7y agoAlthough clearly different in your world, to me serverless meant that it can run without a central server (it was used in peering systems, eg games in the 90's, and co-distributed systems workers sharing info - a bit like block chain in the 00's). Occasionally, it was used when the app was working offline. I think it highly ironic that the marketing hype just upended what's really going on. The new stuff's 100% server bound, as most people realise.