Why Twitter didn’t go down: From a real Twitter SRE

Re:Why Twitter didn’t go down: From a real Twitter SRE by fragmede on Tuesday November 22, 2022 @12:59PM (#33708705)

Software bit-rots. That app from 1998 doesn't interact with today's world. As the world evolves around us, needs change and software has to change to keep up. That's not to say there aren't companies out there that rely on some ancient Windows 98 software program running on similarly ancient hardware, because there are. But Twitter as a piece of software isn't some static thing. It's needs are constantly changing and the software has got to keep up.

Your PalmOS app doesn't run on any modern hardware except under emulation. (Which is sad, I loved my Centro and held onto it for as long as I could.) The last release of PalmOS was in 2007, 15 years ago. Most hardware from that long ago is dead, and thus your software is dead. broken down by entropy to the hardware.

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Re:Why Twitter didn’t go down: From a real Twitter SRE by john_the_writer on Tuesday November 22, 2022 @05:49PM (#33712665)

Agreed. But my comment was in comparison to a car needing maintenance. If nothing changes and I drive my car for 5 years without taking a look under the hood, it will be a mess. If not a stitch of work is done on it, I'm in trouble.

If however I have an app and I don't look under the hood for 5 years, it could still run as good as it did when I locked it down. As you said some companies run on apps written for windows98. Those apps are still working as they always did.

I don't think it needs are constantly changing. Like it could freeze for weeks/months. Leave existing bugs and put versions in lock.

I do agree that it will eventually need to change, but that's where selective hiring comes in. Oh system X isn't great. Lets find a team for that, all else remains black-boxed.

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