5 ms·

Couple things always to mind whenever this article is referenced. Joel's example is Mozilla, but Mozilla ultimately became more successful than Netscape (in te

by trimbo 6y ago

Couple things always to mind whenever this article is referenced. Joel's example is Mozilla, but Mozilla ultimately became more successful than Netscape (in terms of userbase with Firefox). Was the problem really the rewrite, or that a browser company was doomed anyway and the rewrite exacerbated it? Also the article was published just a year before Microsoft pulled off what's maybe the most successful large rewrite and customer migration in software history: Windows/DOS to Windows NT (XP was where it became complete). I've always wished for Joel's take on NT, especially since he was at Microsoft previously and it happened just after this article was posted. What's his opinion on its success when so many weren't?

andrewprock 6y ago
I don't think you can consider Windows NT to be a rewrite of DOS. They were different products entirely, and existed in the marketplace concurrently for upwards of a decade.
- trimbo 6y ago
  Microsoft took their entire userbase and successfully shifted them from DOS (and then Windows on DOS) to NT. They did it in a piecemeal fashion with e.g. Windows 95 and WIN32. What else you would call it?
  - andrewprock 6y ago
    I would call it "different products entirely".
p_l 6y ago
NT wasn't a rewrite, simply. It's a completely different system, that happens to support the same API/ABI, backed by long experience at Microsoft at making things backwards compatible (it's probably the biggest source of Microsoft's success). Microsoft also put ~7 years into preparing the transition piece by piece, with probably the biggest impact point being Windows 2000 that provided significant host of features that compelled big (and loud in complaints) clients over, pulling a lot of software vendors along.
thu2111 6y ago
Mozilla eventually beat IE only because Microsoft disbanded the IE team. The years of product stagnation due to the Mozilla/Firefox rewrite didn't matter in the end because AOL acted as a sugar daddy for a while and then IE was also not moving forward. The Spolski advice is for the more typical situation where your competitors are advancing.

by trimbo 6y ago

andrewprock 6y ago

I don't think you can consider Windows NT to be a rewrite of DOS. They were different products entirely, and existed in the marketplace concurrently for upwards of a decade.

trimbo 6y ago
Microsoft took their entire userbase and successfully shifted them from DOS (and then Windows on DOS) to NT. They did it in a piecemeal fashion with e.g. Windows 95 and WIN32. What else you would call it?
- andrewprock 6y ago
  I would call it "different products entirely".

p_l 6y ago

NT wasn't a rewrite, simply. It's a completely different system, that happens to support the same API/ABI, backed by long experience at Microsoft at making things backwards compatible (it's probably the biggest source of Microsoft's success). Microsoft also put ~7 years into preparing the transition piece by piece, with probably the biggest impact point being Windows 2000 that provided significant host of features that compelled big (and loud in complaints) clients over, pulling a lot of software vendors along.

thu2111 6y ago

Mozilla eventually beat IE only because Microsoft disbanded the IE team. The years of product stagnation due to the Mozilla/Firefox rewrite didn't matter in the end because AOL acted as a sugar daddy for a while and then IE was also not moving forward. The Spolski advice is for the more typical situation where your competitors are advancing.