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A comment on Ask HN: Have you ever thought of leaving programming for something else?. Parent comment

Re:Ask HN: Have you ever thought of leaving programming for ... by chrshawkes on Tuesday November 08, 2016 @07:43AM (#12899746)
At least pyramids will be remembered, most software has a shelf life of a couple years.
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Re:Ask HN: Have you ever thought of leaving programming for ... by jmnicolas on Tuesday November 08, 2016 @10:41AM (#12901089)
Pyramids are nothing. Judging how things are going, I'm sure in a far distant future on the most advanced spaceships in the galaxy there will still be a Windows XP workstation running some critical machinery.

And they'll have a couple cryogenically frozen 20th century sysadmins in case the thing breaks.

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Re:Ask HN: Have you ever thought of leaving programming for ... by TeMPOraL on Tuesday November 08, 2016 @08:03AM (#12899847)
Not really. Most pyramids are throwaway. The web is 99% throwaway code. Businesses themselves are throwaway too, so a lot of software made by them and for them goes to bin after few years.

What remains? Projects that are so useful that dominate their niche. Windows, Linux. Office. Photoshop. CAD tools. I suspect VLC will remain, 7zip may too. Some of those tools are pyramids, some others aggregation of small artpieces. I don't think survival depends on whether or not the software is a pyramid or a thatch hut.

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