I find the quoted comment pretty mild. It is the small ISVs "he [Erik Sink] writes about". Around that time there was a market for tons of boring applications t

I find the quoted comment pretty mild. It is the small ISVs "he [Erik Sink] writes about". Around that time there was a market for tons of boring applications that solved a specific small problem. Of course there were interesting ISVs, too: For example, chess programs were driven and improved by small ISVs for a long time. By definition, those ISVs would attract hackers. But it wasn't the majority.