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They are a sign of a deficiency in the tech business model. Maintenance is a bad business, and so the only way to keep things understood and working is to buil
by lumost 6y ago
They are a sign of a deficiency in the tech business model. Maintenance is a bad business, and so the only way to keep things understood and working is to build new things.
This is fine as long as the "in maintenance only" portion of the industry remains small. Which will only remain true while the industry is growing exponentially. However like industrials, there will eventually be a physical limit to how much better computer networks, microchips, web search, cameras and other activities can get.
Once this happens growth in the core parts of the industry will slow, and more software will be in maintenance. However software components are both opaque and orders of magnitude more complex than physical parts. As an example, Losing practical knowledge of the linux kernel involves losing knowledge of ~27.8 million lines of code.
There may come a time in a number of decades that getting a driver patched is an impractical activity due to the scarcity of knowledge ( or potentially even the ability to build the driver... )
- nradov 6y agoLinux drivers are already a mess, and have been since the beginning. But the problem is due to IP concerns by hardware vendors, not a lack of knowledge about the code base.
- lumost 6y agowhich makes the problem more likely to emerge when the various hardware companies stop developing new drivers due to lack of significant new hardware evolution. e.g. why update the nic drivers if the nic hasn't changed in 20 years? this could easily turn into "how do we even modify and release our companies nic driver?"
- andrey_utkin 6y ago> Maintenance is a bad business Could you please elaborate why? I would agree that such business has relatively low ROI. Still, for example, Linux distros and *BSD foundations are to an extent a maintenance business.
- jsymolon 6y agoOperational Budget vs Capitalize Budget, for one. Build something new, affect bottom line directly vs maintenance. Blame the tax structure for placing an emphasis on new.
- hyperman1 6y agoThis is actually good news. It provides a lever for the government to change our entire culture (in a good way). Much easier than convincing every individual that maintenance is required.
- andrey_utkin 6y agoOr bad news, that the govt's unreasonable bias is the reason why it is the optimal economic behavior to neglect maintenance?
- hyperman1 6y agoEven that is good news. We have 1 knob to turn instead of 8 billion. even if today that knob is on a nonoptimal setting. Convincing 1 government is a lot easyer than convincing every individual.
- HeyLaughingBoy 6y agoI don't understand what you mean. Most software spends the vast majority of its lifecycle being maintained.