Tim Bray relates how Sun don’t have ‘groupware’ software, but instead manage very well with email, IM, and wikis. This follows jwz explaining to Nat Friedman how ‘groupware’ ambitions killed Netscape and why Hula shouldn’t be groupwarish. Wish I could get people to understand that we don’t need “enterprise” systems very much. Of course, I’ve just thrown away this month’s Legal IT which is all about enterprise bullshit. I’m in the wrong world.
And this is On groupware, written , and concerning Rants
Comments
Matt
Andy Todd
Here, here. I’ve just finished reading J2EE Design Patterns and whilst it’s full of good ideas my overwhelming thoughts whilst reading it were that I only need these techniques if I’m building an enormous system for the internet. Say, something like Amazon or Google. And they don’t use J2EE.
So is it me or is this ‘enterprise’ lark all just a load of architecture astronaut-ism
And the JWZ piece is absolutely blinding. The man is a genius. Twisted genius, obviously, but a genius nonetheless.
Phil Wilson
“I only need these techniques if I’m building an enormous system for the internet.”
Like Ebay? which does use J2EE?
Read the jwz thing. I broadly agree that software should do what users want but unless it does what managers want, Hula won’t be an open source replacement for Exchange.
We’ve spoken many times about how the main cog missing in the open source machine is an open source Exchange replacement. That matters because it stops businesses switching to open source and enables proprietary software to maintain its stranglehold.
I think the “software should help users get laid” analogy is a little naive. It all depends at who Hula is for. Is Hula is for you and me, then yeah it should help me remember my cousin’s birthday, or to service my car. If it’s for the company I work for, then it’s got to have slightly different features.
I don’t know a great deal about groupware but I do know that software isn’t always just for hackers.