4 ms·

Since they hired Doug, gave us Hadoop, Pig, YUI etc? Since their home page started being a great portal for normal people? Since Yahoo Labs started churning o

by rjurney 17y ago

Since they hired Doug, gave us Hadoop, Pig, YUI etc? Since their home page started being a great portal for normal people? Since Yahoo Labs started churning out the awesome? Since they've given more to FOSS than any other company, ever? By any standard other than 'Web 2.0 Douchebag' - Yahoo is SUPREMELY cool, whatever you think of their long-term prospects or what might have been.

joshu 17y ago
And, you know, killed a lot of good startups, wasted a lot of engineers' time, etc. "gave us Hadoop" -> let Doug do what he wanted. I'm not convinced they've "given more to FOSS" - significant examples other than Hadoop and Doug's work? Perhaps I spent too much time inside that particular sausage factory. Would you go work there, right now?
- adw 17y ago
  I'm slightly intimidated to reply to you, but YUI and YSlow are pretty significant if you're a front-end guy.
- rjurney 17y ago
  I feel like YDN is pretty meaty. And yes, 'Let Doug do what he wanted and paid him, and gave us Hadoop and Pig with great docs, along with YUI' is a pretty strong contribution. I've never worked there, but if I could work on a cool project - yes, I would. You do sound like you have a unique perspective :) I've always heard nothing but bad things about Yahoo management, and if they acquired my baby and kilt it I'm sure I'd hate them too. Don't the cash and freedom make up for it, somewhat?
  - joshu 17y ago
    I guess. I think the folks that pay Linus or whatever have done more for OS. Sun's opensolaris, too. MySQL, etc too. Just by sheer weight of code. The problem is that the number of cool projects is pretty minimal. They're in duck and cover mode. They'll get pushed to trim employees further and further to stretch the revenues out. I wish I had not sold it to them. The cash and freedom do not even come close; I would rather work on a big, popular product.
    - rjurney 17y ago
      I'm overall pretty impressed with Yahoo's commitment to FOSS development of Hadoop. They've done 90% of its development, and they seem very serious about a commitment to open source going forward. But yeah, I can see how you'd feel like you do.
    - keefe 17y ago
      Can't you work on anything you want now that you have the money? If you hadn't sold and some catastrophe struck you, what then? I'm sitting here counting out months of savings and wondering if I'll be able to build what I want to build before debt and daily life grinds me down.
      - dasil003 17y ago
        Yeah I feel the same as you. But I guess the grass is always greener...
      - SwellJoe 17y ago
        He wasn't broke before the acquisition. A really successful product means you kinda get to do what you want whether you get an "exit" or not. Sure, the big cashout means you can go on a long vacation or something...but how many of us are in it for a long vacation? If I were to sell my company today, I would be thinking about what my next business would be by tomorrow.
        keefe 17y ago
        A really successful product is not guaranteed to remain so, but cash remains cash. I speculate that if yahoo was going to get into social bookmarking then if he hadn't sold, they'd have picked up somebody else and the competitive landscape changes drastically. To me, the big cashout means an opportunity to work on bigger projects. The personal financials are of course the most important factor. If I had a few million or a fat trust fund, I agree selling only makes sense if I figure I am getting a very good price.
    - ivankirigin 17y ago

by rjurney 17y ago

joshu 17y ago

And, you know, killed a lot of good startups, wasted a lot of engineers' time, etc. "gave us Hadoop" -> let Doug do what he wanted. I'm not convinced they've "given more to FOSS" - significant examples other than Hadoop and Doug's work? Perhaps I spent too much time inside that particular sausage factory. Would you go work there, right now?

adw 17y ago
I'm slightly intimidated to reply to you, but YUI and YSlow are pretty significant if you're a front-end guy.
rjurney 17y ago
I feel like YDN is pretty meaty. And yes, 'Let Doug do what he wanted and paid him, and gave us Hadoop and Pig with great docs, along with YUI' is a pretty strong contribution. I've never worked there, but if I could work on a cool project - yes, I would. You do sound like you have a unique perspective :) I've always heard nothing but bad things about Yahoo management, and if they acquired my baby and kilt it I'm sure I'd hate them too. Don't the cash and freedom make up for it, somewhat?
- joshu 17y ago
  I guess. I think the folks that pay Linus or whatever have done more for OS. Sun's opensolaris, too. MySQL, etc too. Just by sheer weight of code. The problem is that the number of cool projects is pretty minimal. They're in duck and cover mode. They'll get pushed to trim employees further and further to stretch the revenues out. I wish I had not sold it to them. The cash and freedom do not even come close; I would rather work on a big, popular product.
  - rjurney 17y ago
    I'm overall pretty impressed with Yahoo's commitment to FOSS development of Hadoop. They've done 90% of its development, and they seem very serious about a commitment to open source going forward. But yeah, I can see how you'd feel like you do.
  - keefe 17y ago
    Can't you work on anything you want now that you have the money? If you hadn't sold and some catastrophe struck you, what then? I'm sitting here counting out months of savings and wondering if I'll be able to build what I want to build before debt and daily life grinds me down.
    - dasil003 17y ago
      Yeah I feel the same as you. But I guess the grass is always greener...
    - SwellJoe 17y ago
      He wasn't broke before the acquisition. A really successful product means you kinda get to do what you want whether you get an "exit" or not. Sure, the big cashout means you can go on a long vacation or something...but how many of us are in it for a long vacation? If I were to sell my company today, I would be thinking about what my next business would be by tomorrow.
      - keefe 17y ago
        A really successful product is not guaranteed to remain so, but cash remains cash. I speculate that if yahoo was going to get into social bookmarking then if he hadn't sold, they'd have picked up somebody else and the competitive landscape changes drastically. To me, the big cashout means an opportunity to work on bigger projects. The personal financials are of course the most important factor. If I had a few million or a fat trust fund, I agree selling only makes sense if I figure I am getting a very good price.
  - ivankirigin 17y ago