4 ms·

Twitter is also a leading silicon valley tech company with hundreds of extremely intelligent employees. You could easily argue that they may have one of the bes

Twitter is also a leading silicon valley tech company with hundreds of extremely intelligent employees. You could easily argue that they may have one of the best engineering staffs in the world. Given that, of course they would use open source versus buying enterprise products. In terms of engineering staff, they are the exception, not the norm. A company like home depot or kelly moore paints would have a tough time relying on open source for all their operational software.

josephagoss 13y ago
I might put SpaceX, Google and even companies like Boeing very far ahead of Twitter when it comes to "one of the best engineering staffs in the world" EDIT: I added Google because of robots, AI and driverless cars, I'm not really sure Twitter is on that level.
- argonaut 13y ago
  That's just nitpicking. Twitter is considered a top tech company to work for in SV, IMO. Their hiring standards are no different than Google's or Facebook's.
- threeseed 13y ago
  What you're doing is stupid. All you're doing is placing software engineering behind all of the classes of engineering. Why not mention companies like BP, Pfizer or Toyota ? In terms of software engineering Twitter is absolutely one of the best around.
  - static_typed 13y ago
    Citations or evidence required for your claims that Twatter is absolutely one of the best around.
    - ropable 13y ago
      This is one of the more tiresome class of comment on HN. The parent was self-evidently just an opinion.
  - eropple 13y ago
    > All you're doing is placing software engineering behind all of the classes of engineering. Is doing so wrong?
  - username223 13y ago
    Calling what Twitter does -- SMS with ads and RoundRects -- leading software engineering is an insult to software engineers. If twitter built cars and planes, I would walk.
    - xentronium 13y ago
      It's no insult. Given enough scale, simplest things like posting 140 character messages become engineering challenges.
allochthon 13y ago
A company like home depot or kelly moore paints would have a tough time relying on open source for all their operational software. For vertical software systems, probably. For applications developed in-house, I'm guessing that even at Home Depot or Kelly Moore it's the other way around -- more and more, you have to make a good case for using a proprietary library. The connotations of "open source" have changed somewhat, and open source libraries are becoming the norm, even at large old-school software businesses, where the lawyers hate open source.

josephagoss 13y ago

I might put SpaceX, Google and even companies like Boeing very far ahead of Twitter when it comes to "one of the best engineering staffs in the world" EDIT: I added Google because of robots, AI and driverless cars, I'm not really sure Twitter is on that level.

argonaut 13y ago
That's just nitpicking. Twitter is considered a top tech company to work for in SV, IMO. Their hiring standards are no different than Google's or Facebook's.
threeseed 13y ago
What you're doing is stupid. All you're doing is placing software engineering behind all of the classes of engineering. Why not mention companies like BP, Pfizer or Toyota ? In terms of software engineering Twitter is absolutely one of the best around.
- static_typed 13y ago
  Citations or evidence required for your claims that Twatter is absolutely one of the best around.
  - ropable 13y ago
    This is one of the more tiresome class of comment on HN. The parent was self-evidently just an opinion.
- eropple 13y ago
  > All you're doing is placing software engineering behind all of the classes of engineering. Is doing so wrong?
- username223 13y ago
  Calling what Twitter does -- SMS with ads and RoundRects -- leading software engineering is an insult to software engineers. If twitter built cars and planes, I would walk.
  - xentronium 13y ago
    It's no insult. Given enough scale, simplest things like posting 140 character messages become engineering challenges.

allochthon 13y ago

A company like home depot or kelly moore paints would have a tough time relying on open source for all their operational software. For vertical software systems, probably. For applications developed in-house, I'm guessing that even at Home Depot or Kelly Moore it's the other way around -- more and more, you have to make a good case for using a proprietary library. The connotations of "open source" have changed somewhat, and open source libraries are becoming the norm, even at large old-school software businesses, where the lawyers hate open source.