Yeah, but creating a web app that gets 1 million+ users isn't an easy feat, either, Joel. You say it can be done with 3 guys and an iguana. Well, that's only

Yeah, but creating a web app that gets 1 million+ users isn't an easy feat, either, Joel. You say it can be done with 3 guys and an iguana. Well, that's only if the 3 guys +/- iguana have spent the better part of the last few years learning Python + Django/RoR, MySQL or PostGres setup installation and administration, Unix administration, SSH, Apache/Lighttpd/Nginx configuration and administration, Memcached, Perlbal or Pound, Mongrel, and perhaps Amazon web services like EC2 and S3. Really, if you're not proficient or able to quickly learn these technologies, good luck with your iguana. And, after spending the majority of the semester dealing with nightmares associated with the "Enterprise" web stack--ASP.NET, J2EE and Oracle--creating a web application is muck. Why else is Big Co. willing to shell out millions of dollars for a startup that has created these web apps and succeeded in attracting customers? Because Big Co's aren't doing it well at all. They're mired in muck. Hackers willing to learn and use a non-Enterprisey web stack will find that they can walk on top of that muck and find brass. Selling shrink-wrapped software isn't the only way to make money.