3 ms·

I could be remembering my history wrong, but wasn't Paypal successful because they didn't do any of the stuff Musk suggested when Confinity and X.com merged?

SwellJoe 17y ago
Was he the guy that pushed for a mass-migration to Windows for PayPal infrastructure (despite the fact that the existing UNIX infrastructure was working fine)? If so, I retract anything nice I've ever said about him. The man is clearly an idiot.
- menloparkbum 17y ago
  It wasn't necessarily that simple. They were trying to merge a company with a Windows infrastructure with a company that had a Unix infrastructure and were trying to decide on one infrastructure moving forward. But yes, he was the one pushing for Windows.
  - SwellJoe 17y ago
    Definitely an idiot. This was way back in the 90's. Windows was simply not an acceptable substitute for a server operating system back then (though it might be today, for some classes of problem). I'm actually not able to find Max Levchin's deeper technical discussion of the issue (which I remember being a pretty compelling case, and I read it a couple of times back then), but I did find several references from others discussing it, including pg: PayPal only just dodged this bullet. After they merged with X.com, the new CEO wanted to switch to Windows—even after PayPal cofounder Max Levchin showed that their software scaled only 1% as well on Windows as Unix. Fortunately for PayPal they switched CEOs instead. - http://www.paulgraham.com/startupmistakes.html http://www.paulgraham.com/startupmistakes.html I think what is simple is that Musk ignored technical reality based on a personal whim, and seemingly let personal conflicts get in the way of sound technical decision-making for a multi-million (soon to be billion) dollar business.

3 ms·

I could be remembering my history wrong, but wasn't Paypal successful because they didn't do any of the stuff Musk suggested when Confinity and X.com merged?

by menloparkbum 17y ago

SwellJoe 17y ago
Was he the guy that pushed for a mass-migration to Windows for PayPal infrastructure (despite the fact that the existing UNIX infrastructure was working fine)? If so, I retract anything nice I've ever said about him. The man is clearly an idiot.
- menloparkbum 17y ago
  It wasn't necessarily that simple. They were trying to merge a company with a Windows infrastructure with a company that had a Unix infrastructure and were trying to decide on one infrastructure moving forward. But yes, he was the one pushing for Windows.
  - SwellJoe 17y ago
    Definitely an idiot. This was way back in the 90's. Windows was simply not an acceptable substitute for a server operating system back then (though it might be today, for some classes of problem). I'm actually not able to find Max Levchin's deeper technical discussion of the issue (which I remember being a pretty compelling case, and I read it a couple of times back then), but I did find several references from others discussing it, including pg: PayPal only just dodged this bullet. After they merged with X.com, the new CEO wanted to switch to Windows—even after PayPal cofounder Max Levchin showed that their software scaled only 1% as well on Windows as Unix. Fortunately for PayPal they switched CEOs instead. - http://www.paulgraham.com/startupmistakes.html http://www.paulgraham.com/startupmistakes.html I think what is simple is that Musk ignored technical reality based on a personal whim, and seemingly let personal conflicts get in the way of sound technical decision-making for a multi-million (soon to be billion) dollar business.