5 ms·

> massively expensive to produce and self-contained to a degree that you can distribute the end product in a torrent. So, like movies or software

by seydor 4y ago

phyalow 4y ago
Or Microsoft Office...
- justinclift 4y ago
  Or Linux distro's.
  - bayindirh 4y ago
    Or BSD distros.
    - Brian_K_White 4y ago
      These are actually trivial and silly examples. The bulk of really valuable commercial code is not self contained or portable like those. Where is the torrent with a runnable copy of paypal, or amazon?
      - bayindirh 4y ago
        I guess you have never compiled a Linux/BSD distribution from scratch and supported it alongside its infrastructure and lead its maintenance process. Even without that, if you want downloadable and runnable software platforms, look to public Git repositories. Some of the people who have no financial motivation will release what they do alongside installation procedures and quality of life scripts and architecture documentation. Most of the open source platforms doesn't publish this documentation and doesn't make installation easy to keep a sizeable moat and protect the platform they have developed, hence this is why we have a division between "Free Software" and "Open Source". In short, "The bulk of really valuable commercial code" is self contained, but not open source, or if open source it's not Free Software and made deployable for other parties. Otherwise it loses monetary value in the eyes of the people who develop that for the monies. Otherwise we have have Elasticsearch incident, where they pivot and move to "Source Available" model to protect their castle.
        Brian_K_White 4y ago
        "I guess you have never compiled a Linux/BSD distribution from scratch" You guess, and so perhaps do other things as well, with poor acuity. The incalculable value of open source software has approximately no bearing on this assertion. Yes I love linux and bsd too I'm not defacing your religion. I'm actually quite Stallmanesque in making my own life harder by only using ooen source software as much as possible and being super fun a family gatherings talking about it. You sure nailed that one.
        bayindirh 4y ago
        Nice, it makes us two tech leads then.
      - justinclift 4y ago
        Heh, on that note: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34525936 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34525936 Looking down that page, there are some valid magnet links.
candiddevmike 4y ago
Or a car
- moffkalast 4y ago
  But you wouldn't download one. Would you?!?
  - Vrondi 4y ago
    Not yet.
    - moffkalast 4y ago
      It's treason then.
- seydor 4y ago
  Where s the download link?
koheripbal 4y ago
Or a copy of Windows or Office source code.
- gambiting 4y ago
  I don't think that's right - even if you had the full source code for either of those, it's extremely unlikely you'd be able to build them on your own machine.
  - ddulaney 4y ago
    Building them would be a challenge, but definitely not an insurmountable one. I’ve worked on a couple of C++ projects at a similar scale to Windows (millions of LOC) and the build systems were a major pain. But a determined engineer with the readme file and no other help could get it building in a week or so. (This probably says more about how hard it is to build C++ than anything else)
    - DownGoat 4y ago
      I don't really think it is a language ting, just more of a project size thing.
      - willy_k 4y ago
        Well, it kind of is a language thing. Many newer languages (Rust and Go come to mind) are much more consistent in the way you interact with them as your project scales.
    - furyofantares 4y ago
      Some years ago someone that worked at Microsoft told me he didn't think any individual engineer who already works on Windows could ever get Windows building by themselves with just the code.
      - varispeed 4y ago

> massively expensive to produce and self-contained to a degree that you can distribute the end product in a torrent. So, like movies or software

by seydor 4y ago

> massively expensive to produce and self-contained to a degree that you can distribute the end product in a torrent. So, like movies or software

phyalow 4y ago

Or Microsoft Office...

justinclift 4y ago
Or Linux distro's.
- bayindirh 4y ago
  Or BSD distros.
  - Brian_K_White 4y ago
    These are actually trivial and silly examples. The bulk of really valuable commercial code is not self contained or portable like those. Where is the torrent with a runnable copy of paypal, or amazon?
    - bayindirh 4y ago
      I guess you have never compiled a Linux/BSD distribution from scratch and supported it alongside its infrastructure and lead its maintenance process. Even without that, if you want downloadable and runnable software platforms, look to public Git repositories. Some of the people who have no financial motivation will release what they do alongside installation procedures and quality of life scripts and architecture documentation. Most of the open source platforms doesn't publish this documentation and doesn't make installation easy to keep a sizeable moat and protect the platform they have developed, hence this is why we have a division between "Free Software" and "Open Source". In short, "The bulk of really valuable commercial code" is self contained, but not open source, or if open source it's not Free Software and made deployable for other parties. Otherwise it loses monetary value in the eyes of the people who develop that for the monies. Otherwise we have have Elasticsearch incident, where they pivot and move to "Source Available" model to protect their castle.
      - Brian_K_White 4y ago
        "I guess you have never compiled a Linux/BSD distribution from scratch" You guess, and so perhaps do other things as well, with poor acuity. The incalculable value of open source software has approximately no bearing on this assertion. Yes I love linux and bsd too I'm not defacing your religion. I'm actually quite Stallmanesque in making my own life harder by only using ooen source software as much as possible and being super fun a family gatherings talking about it. You sure nailed that one.
        bayindirh 4y ago
        Nice, it makes us two tech leads then.
    - justinclift 4y ago
      Heh, on that note: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34525936 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34525936 Looking down that page, there are some valid magnet links.

candiddevmike 4y ago

Or a car

moffkalast 4y ago
But you wouldn't download one. Would you?!?
- Vrondi 4y ago
  Not yet.
  - moffkalast 4y ago
    It's treason then.
seydor 4y ago
Where s the download link?

koheripbal 4y ago

Or a copy of Windows or Office source code.

gambiting 4y ago
I don't think that's right - even if you had the full source code for either of those, it's extremely unlikely you'd be able to build them on your own machine.
- ddulaney 4y ago
  Building them would be a challenge, but definitely not an insurmountable one. I’ve worked on a couple of C++ projects at a similar scale to Windows (millions of LOC) and the build systems were a major pain. But a determined engineer with the readme file and no other help could get it building in a week or so. (This probably says more about how hard it is to build C++ than anything else)
  - DownGoat 4y ago
    I don't really think it is a language ting, just more of a project size thing.
    - willy_k 4y ago
      Well, it kind of is a language thing. Many newer languages (Rust and Go come to mind) are much more consistent in the way you interact with them as your project scales.
  - furyofantares 4y ago
    Some years ago someone that worked at Microsoft told me he didn't think any individual engineer who already works on Windows could ever get Windows building by themselves with just the code.
    - varispeed 4y ago