October 22, 2005

Multi-applications ...

Scribe asks:

If it has emerged and evolved out of a varying set of applications, what does this imply about its suitability for future applications? Especially if all those applications are from 1 person's needs. Will this ad-hoc approach prevent it from being adapted, as well as adopted?

Hmmm. What would you say about a species which seemed to survive in a varying set of environments. What does this imply about its suitability for future environments? :-)

1 comment:

Scribe said...

I think there's a difference between something that's been generically designed, and something that gets hacked into new situations. That's not to say it won't necessariyl work in those situations, but it does threaten the longevity and the sustainability of said tech.

That said, the hacked-together Windows OS seems to be hanging around (although its next incarnation is apparently delayed due to a compete rewrite). But at that point one should consider the competition surrounding a tech - it can be said, I would argue, that competition threatening the niche position of OPML is probably considerably larger (and quicker to innovate alternatives) than the world of Operating Systems - especially when viral factors ("everyone else has it") are taken into account.