4 ms·

The membership of this group is basically a list of businesses that startups should be chipping away at. Let them spend their time lobbying, while you sneak up

The membership of this group is basically a list of businesses that startups should be chipping away at. Let them spend their time lobbying, while you sneak up behind them and whack them on the head with your niche webapp. -- Adobe Apple Autodesk AVEVA AVG Bentley Systems CA Cadence Design Systems CNC Software – Mastercam Compuware Corel Dassault Systèmes SolidWorks Corporation Dell Intel Intuit Kaspersky McAfee Microsoft Minitab Progress Software PTC Quark Quest Rosetta Stone Siemens PLM Software, Inc. Sybase Symantec TechSmith The MathWorks

AlexMuir 15y ago
Downvoters, educate me! What's the issue here?
- brk 15y ago
  I downvoted you... First, that list of companies has deep pockets, and it is WAY harder to undue legislation than prevent it in the first place. So, suggesting in any way that we let it be and take some other tactic is bad advice, IMO. Second the "niche webapp" bit is way too cliche. What "webapp" is going to threaten Dell, Intel or Apple? Even some of the software companies on that list focus on things that are not going to fall prey to "niche webapps" for any foreseeable time. So, to me, your comment was a strawman that added no value.
  - AlexMuir 15y ago
    Thanks, I appreciate the opportunity to engage. Apple, Intel and Dell are the misfits on that list, fine. Although by the same logic Microsoft (the equivalent of a webapp developer in its time) should pose no threat to IBM. For sure, they aren't going to fall prey to a single webapp. But they are being chipped away at - Autodesk is now up against Sketchup. Microsoft is facing Google Docs, iOS, Ubuntu, Android etc etc etc. All those competing products came from acquired startups - I doubt they set out to 'fell Microsoft' , and nor have they done it. I wholeheartedly agree with you that we oughtn't to let this legislation roll through - I was a bit flippant on that.
- rhplus 15y ago
  I didn't downvote, but possibly it's because you're suggesting people build webapps to compete with anti-virus firms, CAD/CAM vendors and a couple of hardware manufacturers.
  - adriand 15y ago
    Interesting, because I would bet that there will be a serious web app contender in the CAD sphere at some point. I'm not so sure the OP is off the mark here.
    - the-cakeboss 15y ago
      Maybe someday, but I just can't see a web app that could seriously compete with the likes of Adobe or Autodesk in the foreseeable future. While there are online services that provide some of the features found in applications like photoshop, they are hardly compelling enough to get any Adobe or Autodesk customer to jump ship. Same goes for the like of Siemens and Mastercam, but probably more so.
  - AlexMuir 15y ago
    Trend did a pretty decent job with Housecall - I think that was mainly an ActiveX control? I don't know much about the AV industry, but their market (Windows PCs) is being challenged by mobile devices, tablets, *nix, Macs and browser-based systems.
    - sukuriant 15y ago
      Other operating systems can get viruses too. Windows has the most viruses pointed at it because most people use it. The Antivirus industry is not really being challenged.
- bonzoesc 15y ago
  None of the companies you listed are one-man shops; believing that they can either lobby or make new products and not do both is silly.
pnathan 15y ago
The above comment displays a remarkable lack of understand of what it takes to build serious, featureful, software that solves hard problems. Almost every webapp I've used is a recreational activity compared to some of the problems the above companies solve. Particularly amusing in comparison are the antivirus vendors, Autodesk, CNC, and Solidworks. They are gen-you-winely complicated.
- AlexMuir 15y ago
  I'm not seriously suggesting that two guys in a garage set out to build an index of web pages like Yahoo's - Yahoo has hundreds of people for god's sake. Seriously though, I do hear what you're saying. But I used the words chip and niche. If I could chip a tiny niche out of Microsoft then I'd be a happy man. I guess my point, which I didn't make at all clear, was that everyone's trying to get a slice of Facebook, Google, Salesforce, 37signals (all smart companies) when they could be going for these dinosaurs.
- rmjb 15y ago
  It sounds like you're implying that web apps aren't quite ready to take on CAD/CNC apps yet. Have you seen tinkercad ?

AlexMuir 15y ago

Downvoters, educate me! What's the issue here?

brk 15y ago
I downvoted you... First, that list of companies has deep pockets, and it is WAY harder to undue legislation than prevent it in the first place. So, suggesting in any way that we let it be and take some other tactic is bad advice, IMO. Second the "niche webapp" bit is way too cliche. What "webapp" is going to threaten Dell, Intel or Apple? Even some of the software companies on that list focus on things that are not going to fall prey to "niche webapps" for any foreseeable time. So, to me, your comment was a strawman that added no value.
- AlexMuir 15y ago
  Thanks, I appreciate the opportunity to engage. Apple, Intel and Dell are the misfits on that list, fine. Although by the same logic Microsoft (the equivalent of a webapp developer in its time) should pose no threat to IBM. For sure, they aren't going to fall prey to a single webapp. But they are being chipped away at - Autodesk is now up against Sketchup. Microsoft is facing Google Docs, iOS, Ubuntu, Android etc etc etc. All those competing products came from acquired startups - I doubt they set out to 'fell Microsoft' , and nor have they done it. I wholeheartedly agree with you that we oughtn't to let this legislation roll through - I was a bit flippant on that.
rhplus 15y ago
I didn't downvote, but possibly it's because you're suggesting people build webapps to compete with anti-virus firms, CAD/CAM vendors and a couple of hardware manufacturers.
- adriand 15y ago
  Interesting, because I would bet that there will be a serious web app contender in the CAD sphere at some point. I'm not so sure the OP is off the mark here.
  - the-cakeboss 15y ago
    Maybe someday, but I just can't see a web app that could seriously compete with the likes of Adobe or Autodesk in the foreseeable future. While there are online services that provide some of the features found in applications like photoshop, they are hardly compelling enough to get any Adobe or Autodesk customer to jump ship. Same goes for the like of Siemens and Mastercam, but probably more so.
- AlexMuir 15y ago
  Trend did a pretty decent job with Housecall - I think that was mainly an ActiveX control? I don't know much about the AV industry, but their market (Windows PCs) is being challenged by mobile devices, tablets, *nix, Macs and browser-based systems.
  - sukuriant 15y ago
    Other operating systems can get viruses too. Windows has the most viruses pointed at it because most people use it. The Antivirus industry is not really being challenged.
bonzoesc 15y ago
None of the companies you listed are one-man shops; believing that they can either lobby or make new products and not do both is silly.

pnathan 15y ago

The above comment displays a remarkable lack of understand of what it takes to build serious, featureful, software that solves hard problems. Almost every webapp I've used is a recreational activity compared to some of the problems the above companies solve. Particularly amusing in comparison are the antivirus vendors, Autodesk, CNC, and Solidworks. They are gen-you-winely complicated.

AlexMuir 15y ago
I'm not seriously suggesting that two guys in a garage set out to build an index of web pages like Yahoo's - Yahoo has hundreds of people for god's sake. Seriously though, I do hear what you're saying. But I used the words chip and niche. If I could chip a tiny niche out of Microsoft then I'd be a happy man. I guess my point, which I didn't make at all clear, was that everyone's trying to get a slice of Facebook, Google, Salesforce, 37signals (all smart companies) when they could be going for these dinosaurs.
rmjb 15y ago
It sounds like you're implying that web apps aren't quite ready to take on CAD/CNC apps yet. Have you seen tinkercad ?