His point about how software on a high-end workstation barely changed over the course of 10 years is interesting. I feel like if you asked someone many decades ago whether hardware vs software would change more, they would likely say "software of course! it's easy to rewrite."
It's interesting to read a manpage on a slick, modern-seeming system like macOS and notice a date at the bottom which is literally last century.
I guess the key thing is the birth of self-sustaining "software ecosystems": even if the ecosystem is flawed, the benefit of being part of the ecosystem is really high, and choosing to be part of the ecosystem means adding to it, which makes the benefit of being part of it even greater. Unix is self-sustaining despite any flaws in the same way qwerty and the English language are self-sustaining despite any flaws. Unix is like a protocol for software projects to coordinate with each other and with human beings.
Ironically, if it wasn't for rapid development of hardware and broad penetration of computers throughout society, we might still be in a phase of rapid systems evolution, since the "ecosystems" wouldn't be as well-developed. Popularity increase -> lock-in.
It's interesting to read a manpage on a slick, modern-seeming system like macOS and notice a date at the bottom which is literally last century.
I guess the key thing is the birth of self-sustaining "software ecosystems": even if the ecosystem is flawed, the benefit of being part of the ecosystem is really high, and choosing to be part of the ecosystem means adding to it, which makes the benefit of being part of it even greater. Unix is self-sustaining despite any flaws in the same way qwerty and the English language are self-sustaining despite any flaws. Unix is like a protocol for software projects to coordinate with each other and with human beings.
Ironically, if it wasn't for rapid development of hardware and broad penetration of computers throughout society, we might still be in a phase of rapid systems evolution, since the "ecosystems" wouldn't be as well-developed. Popularity increase -> lock-in.