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It kind of is layered on top, no? WebDAV didn't really catch on, but the general product space of remote drives did. The problem with WebDAV is that like most

It kind of is layered on top, no? WebDAV didn't really catch on, but the general product space of remote drives did. The problem with WebDAV is that like most Web* tech (and maybe Braid) it's design by committee in the abstract. To make remote drives work well for the end user requires a fairly complicated protocol with tons of ugly edge cases. The interoperable standards from committees approach tends to fail in those situations, whereas hard driving startups that use proprietary protocols they can iterate quickly tend to win. Iteration speed > openness, when there's nothing to copy from. Standardization tends to be about bigger companies trying to commodify their competitors.

0x006A 2y ago
many proprietary protocols iterate themself out of existence, just because some of them survive does not mean its the better model. Look at the video codec space, proprietary codes have long lost and have gone the way of Real Media, Windows Media Video and many others. While H.26X which is the result of design by committee are used everywhere.
- treyd 2y ago
  It might be a different scenario with (modern) codecs where to get good use out of them it helps a lot to ship dedicated hardware. That's not true of file sync protocols.
giovannibonetti 2y ago
> Standardization tends to be about bigger companies trying to commodify their competitors. Didn't you mean to commodity their complements? Like when Microsoft (software company) commoditied the hardware on top of where their OS ran.
- mike_hearn 2y ago
  No, I meant commodify their competitors. Big company has moved up the value chain and doesn't want others following them, so they standardize the tech at the level below. Now competitors are all implementing the standard and thus can't get an edge over each other, so they end up driving margins to zero via price competition and have nothing left over for innovation, whilst simultaneously reducing the bigger firm's cost by turning the lower levels they still rely on into a commodity.

0x006A 2y ago

many proprietary protocols iterate themself out of existence, just because some of them survive does not mean its the better model. Look at the video codec space, proprietary codes have long lost and have gone the way of Real Media, Windows Media Video and many others. While H.26X which is the result of design by committee are used everywhere.

treyd 2y ago
It might be a different scenario with (modern) codecs where to get good use out of them it helps a lot to ship dedicated hardware. That's not true of file sync protocols.

giovannibonetti 2y ago

> Standardization tends to be about bigger companies trying to commodify their competitors. Didn't you mean to commodity their complements? Like when Microsoft (software company) commoditied the hardware on top of where their OS ran.

mike_hearn 2y ago
No, I meant commodify their competitors. Big company has moved up the value chain and doesn't want others following them, so they standardize the tech at the level below. Now competitors are all implementing the standard and thus can't get an edge over each other, so they end up driving margins to zero via price competition and have nothing left over for innovation, whilst simultaneously reducing the bigger firm's cost by turning the lower levels they still rely on into a commodity.