Zawinski's Law of Software Envelopment, also known as Zawinski's Law:
"Every program attempts to expand until it can read mail. Those programs which cannot so expand are replaced by ones which can."
Some have interpreted this as commenting on the phenomenon of software bloating with popular features:
Zawinski himself has stated:
"My point was not about copycats, it was about platformization. Apps that you "live in" all day have pressure to become everything and do everything. An app for editing text becomes an IDE, then an OS. An app for displaying hypertext documents becomes a mail reader, then an OS."
Zawinski's Law of Software Envelopment, also known as Zawinski's Law:
"Every program attempts to expand until it can read mail. Those programs which cannot so expand are replaced by ones which can."
Some have interpreted this as commenting on the phenomenon of software bloating with popular features:
Zawinski himself has stated:
"My point was not about copycats, it was about platformization. Apps that you "live in" all day have pressure to become everything and do everything. An app for editing text becomes an IDE, then an OS. An app for displaying hypertext documents becomes a mail reader, then an OS."