Does IT matter ?? Version 7.12, Release 4, Service Pack 1…

Hi…

Once again I found an article of the famous Mr. Carr. This time it is called “Does Software Matter” in the Informatik Spektrum of August this year. This time it must be Version 7.12, Release 4 but still Service Pack 1 …

In the closing session of the TechSummit I already gave some ideas why I do believe IT matters more it ever did and certainly will increase to do so in the future. But that was before I saw the article of Mr. Carr. Now… nothing changed ;-)

Mr. Carr impressed by summarizing the pressure of good-enough (we don’t need the latest Office because Office 95 has everything in it we will ever need) and how Linux and OpenSource drives the level of commodity. How oversea-workers come into play because of OSS and such alike.
In the end hardware and software will melt together and – I skip some steps in between – software will become a service and finally to the slogan “Success, Not Software”.
In his opinion commercial development of code will still happen but it will not grant true advance because as soon as a new idea shows its potential on the market it will be copied and will become commodity. So software alone is no advantage, it needs additional things like services to really attract customers.
One could argue about how the market will develop in the future and certainly there is no real black or white after all. But even taking his ideas for the only truth I still don’t get why IT does not matter in this scenario.
I do understand and I do support the idea of overcoming the idea of IT being sent from heaven. IT is a tool. It should help the user being productive, the company it runs to be successful. The user should have fun doing things, be creative, be curious…
Are we already there? No, we aren’t…
Let’s take a look on another industry: Excavators. Years ago – when I was a little boy – my uncle ran a little company building houses and yes, he had an excavator. For the driver there was a cabin with glass windows (those broke from time to time but one cannot use plastic because the dust scratches the surface and the window goes blind), a chair and some joysticks to drive the machine. And hey, there was no real invention in sight for excavators. A bit better engine here, and less oil consumption there, but – hey – what’s in it.
Today the picture totally changed. Today the driver is called Operator and the equipment to support him (air condition, oil suspension on the chair, electronics to support the Operator etc.) really evolved in the past few years.
So was Office 95 wrong? No, it was a necessary step and used what we had that time. Is it still sufficient today? Might be, but after all you can become an Operator…and somehow in the end it even pays back the investment. And this is only one example of inovation treasures to be lifted...
So, thank you Mr. Carr for starting a healthy discussion but please accept that even the slow turning IT industry evolved in the last 2 years. And we learned that even Java applications do not “run on any equipment”. It is just not that easy.

CU

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