• RedditWanderer@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    6
    ·
    edit-2
    1 month ago

    This is kinda flawed. Most businesses need to recoup their investment, and some upfront costs going away is part of the plan to profitability.

    I think this guy is confusing all “software businesses” and fortune 100 tech companies.

    Edit: there are ton of businesses that make software, don’t become unicorns or make billions, that survive on a product suiting some niche. To say “software companies” take crazy margins is stupid. Big tech is the issue, not software (see linux)

    • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      10
      ·
      edit-2
      1 month ago

      Most businesses need to recoup their investment

      The markets jumped 30% this year alone, even in the face of a higher than recently normal interest rate.

      The problem isn’t recoupment of losses, it’s an expectation of skyrocketing future growth.

      The end result is a lending market chasing unicorns, quarter after quarter, as businesses promising increasingly ludicrous returns to lure those investors in.

      • RedditWanderer@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        edit-2
        1 month ago

        Youre describing the fortune 100 tech companies, as I said.

        Plenty of smaller startups survived, still develop, support and improve their software very far from everything you’re describing here. Should maintainers be paid less and less as the project ages?

        Software shouldn’t get cheaper as it ages. Big tech companies should stop milking monopolies off tax payer funds. It has nothing to do with the cost / lifecycle of software

        • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          1 month ago

          Plenty of smaller startups survived, still develop, support and improve their software very far from everything you’re describing here.

          The successful startups are gobbled up by the Big Tech firms. Instagram got eaten by Facebook. Nest and Fitbit were eaten by Google. Microsoft is a nesting doll of smaller game companies.

          Software shouldn’t get cheaper as it ages.

          Linux suggests otherwise. Once you have a functional feature suite, you’re just performance tuning to new hardware.

          Excel hasn’t materially changed in decades. Why does the price go up with every new edition, while it’s peer software in LibreOffice continue to be free?

          • RedditWanderer@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            1
            ·
            edit-2
            1 month ago

            There are many more successful startups than the ones who make the news and become unicorns. Again your talking about big tech and fortune 100 tech companies, not software.

            Linux doesn’t suggest otherwise, maintainers exist who need to be paid and it’s not just “performance”, thats silly.

            You say excel hasn’t fundamentally changed in decades but that’s not true. There is still a ton of tech debt in excel that affects real people, some who have left for a competitor. All these people here https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/excel/feature-request/m-p/7702 seem to disagree excel was done a long time ago. Clearly you dont work in software and are relying on what software looks like though tabloids.

            • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              1
              ·
              1 month ago

              There are many more successful startups than the ones who make the new and become unicorns.

              There are plenty of startups that don’t fail. If that’s the benchmark of success, you’re still only talking about something on the order of 10-20% of businesses. But companies that become regionally competitive, rather than simply filling a specialist IT local niche, are target rich for M&A.

              You say excel hasn’t fundamentally changed in decades but that’s not true. There is still a ton of tech debt in excel

              The existence of technical debt does not refute the claim that its hardly changed. Its evidence that much of the core architecture hasn’t changed and flashing features have just been stacked on top in an increasingly precarious manner.

              Clearly you dont work in software

              Tu quoque

              • RedditWanderer@lemmy.world
                link
                fedilink
                arrow-up
                1
                ·
                edit-2
                1 month ago

                Hasn’t changed?

                10-20% of businesses?

                Dude nobody has time to refute these nonsense claims. It’s not “tu quoque” if that’s not the statement discrediting your claim and if youre clearly talking like someone who isn’t in the industry. Software is more than what twitter says exists, and goes beyond FAANG or the fortune 500.

                  • RedditWanderer@lemmy.world
                    link
                    fedilink
                    arrow-up
                    1
                    ·
                    edit-2
                    1 month ago

                    Exactly, Fortune 500 companies and their stupid business garbage using software.

                    It’s not a problem with software, it’s a big tech problem. You made it clearer than i could have. Linux maintainers arent business school graduates, but they still need to be paid decades after the “software is done”. It’s not free

                    And if you mean providing random statistics and no sources is business 101, i can hardly disagree

      • RedditWanderer@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        edit-2
        1 month ago

        “when done drops to zero”.

        This isn’t true at all. Software ages, you need to make it better to keep up with new shit. This isn’t a software issue, it’s a big tech/monopoly issue. Youre talking about big tech companies.

        Other software exists, it’s not just Instagram and tiktok.

          • RedditWanderer@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            1
            ·
            1 month ago

            Thats because you define software by whatever successful startup comes a unicorn. There are millions of software companies that never make a billion dollars. Theyre still a software company making a product that doesn’t become free.

            Youre also mixing total cost versus margin. Nobody is saying software is more expensive than hardware