[pmlnr]

<offtopic>

I wish we had a few years without tech buzzwords. Web 2.0, virtualization, devops, cloud, containers, microservices, serverless... I'd so, so much like to focus on something existing and make it work well. Maybe we wouldn't have 20+ crappy chat systems, but one good federated xmpp or matrix.

</offtopic>

[PavlovsCat]

That's such good point it should be it's own topic even.

I thought about just that yesterday, too: In individual development, we need stimuli, but we also need a LOT of sleep, and being protected from stimuli. Too little or too much stimuli stunts development, roughly speaking from the armchair. So why wouldn't the same go for our development and use of technology, both as individuals and as a society? At what point is a too constant treadmill a detriment?

And isn't it interesting that the idea of taking a break for 2 years, fixing bugs and learning the tools we currently have, writing docs, would probably be met with fears of "stopping progress" or "falling behind"? Maybe that's like the idea of never sleeping so you can finish university at age 14, and maybe we're finding out that it doesn't work on a large scale, either.

I was also thinking about stuff like Directory Opus, which started on the Amiga and is still being improved. I don't want Windows anymore when Windows 7 "runs out", but the thought of Linux without DO makes me sad... a program so good, I will probably run Win7 in a VM just for it. Old Opera was also pure craftsmanship and skill, and empowering users, and I miss that "spirit" so much. It still exists, but it should be the norm IMO, we should accept no less.

Browsing new releases, freeware or open source or commercial, that should be purely awesome, not something where you have to be constantly on guard and worry about "fragmentation", or people not knowing about prior achievements and insights. I want to just celebrate and thank software authors. I miss not being cynical in the least, actually.

But again, that's not against Vitriol, which I only very superficially glanced at, I'll give it a more thorough look later tonight and if I have any suggestions I'll post in this thread.

[vinceguidry]

That's all well and good, but the examples you gave are problems of scale and economics, not invention. XMPP works as well as you want it to, and clients are on all the platforms, but Apple users want to use iMessage. That's not a problem that any kind of invention can solve.

The buzzwords themselves are references to incremental improvements in the state of the tech ecosystem that allow more powerful solutions for all. An app we all have on our devices right now, Slack, was once buzzword soup. Now it's an actual solution used by businesses the world over. It's not perfect, but it works better for our collective needs than IRC ever did.

What's going to replace the Slack's of today's tech world? I dunno, but I bet they'll be built on buzzwords.

[matte_black]

We do not all have Slack on our devices.

[vinceguidry]

I see many many non-technical teams that use Slack. Slack's made inroads in the business messaging market that used to be the sole domain of enterprise vendors like Microsoft, Cisco, and Oracle.

[Karunamon]

How many of those are buzzwords and how many of them are concrete descriptions of technology? Virtualization, containers, and microservices at least have commonly-accepted definitions and examples of those technologies are widely used, standardized, and work well at scale.

VMs, now containers, and what they imply for technology are more important than yet another godforsaken chat protocol - YMMV.

[dec0dedab0de]

It can be both a buzzword and a concrete description of technology. It makes the jump into buzzword when people who don't really understand what the technology is start espousing it's benefits, and using the word to signal to each other that they're in the know.

If you've ever heard a middle manager at a big company talk about the tech stack their teams use then you should understand.