[KGIII]

One of my favorites is on Slashdot. If you go there and search for 'VMware' then you can find it.

When VMware was first announced and demoed, the commenters at Slashdot declared things like it was fake, it was stupid, it was a waste, it would never work, or that dual booting was a better solution. They largely concluded that virtual machines weren't a thing and happily congratulated themselves for their brilliant insights.

I'm on a tablet or I'd dig the link out for you. It's one of my favorite discussion threads on the Internet.

[aswanson]

Reminds me, Im just as guilty. Check out my insights on Amazon introducing the Kindle: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=81804

[KGIII]

Yeah, we've all got comments from our past that we wish we'd not made. Our seemingly brilliant insights aren't so brilliant after all.

Today's thread about Musk's "Hyperloop" is good fodder to bookmark and look back at in a decade. I have to wonder how many of the posters will admit they were wrong, should this reach fruition?

I dug the link out for another person who replied. You may want to take a look?

https://tech.slashdot.org/story/99/02/11/0939233/multiple-os...

There was a database glitch that messed up usernames (I think that was after they'd added accounts, my memory isn't that good so I'm not certain) but it's still an amusing read. It really is a good example for a variety of discussions. It's my favorite example, actually.

[aswanson]

Thanks for that, belly laughing. One common thread of these "brilliant" dismissals, mine included, is that they undervalue how much people don't like going through technical hurdles with products and how much they will pay to avoid them and get on with what they want to do. Also, for ambitious goals like hyperloop, many assume technical challenges are insurmountable.

[KGIII]

Yeah, there's at least one comment in there to fit most stereotypes. They range from disbelief to saying the product is no different than other products. There are price complaints to comments that don't seem to even understand - but the commenter was happy to add their opinion.

A few people actually understood and made comments, and some had seen a recent demo. Some speculated about patents and one was happy to point out that they had a whole notebook full of ideas. Some seemed to think the software could do things it couldn't actually do, and certainly not at that stage.

One person even complained that it wouldn't work for him because if his old hardware. Others complained that it didn't meet their needs. Some even seemed unhappy that it wasn't available to run on their obscure OS. Of course, they couldn't use a more popular OS and then virtualized their obscure OS.

Also, there are comments to complain about the site management, people insulting other people, and comments that hadn't a damned thing to do with the subject at hand.

For so few comments, it's like they managed to hit every stereotype. It's absolutely my favorite reference thread and it works for so many conversations. I actually made it a point to finally bookmark it on my tablet as I've been using it more than a laptop lately.

[aswanson]

Thanks, I really need to check that one out.

[KGIII]

I never tell people that they 'need' to do something, so I'll say I highly suggest you do.

So, to make it easier for you - I've grabbed a laptop and dug out the link:

https://tech.slashdot.org/story/99/02/11/0939233/multiple-os...

I absolutely encourage anyone/everyone to read the linked comments. It's one of my favorite examples when a number of discussions come up.

My preferred time to reference it is when people say things like, "Slashdot used to be so much better!" Or when they say things like, "We had much better commentary back in the day!"

No, no they did not. In fact, it was never as good as people recall it being. That is kind of what makes it so wonderful and why I love discussion sites.

I am, by no means, innocent or superior. ;-)