[tmp_anon_22]

> how little credit is given to GPS in Uber's story

Uber would not exist without GPS. I wonder how many other of the unicorns:

* Twitter without Rails

* Facebook without PHP (I think this is fair but maybe not)

* Reddit without Python

* Tesla and Solar City without huge government subsidies

Crazy to think how many Lake Tahoe vacation homes were transferred thanks to these projects.

[foobarbaz33]

I don't think the programming language dependencies are comparable to tech like GPS.

Reddit was originally written in lisp. It was later rewritten in Python with a trivial amount of effort. And it could have be trivially rewritten in any other language as well. The languages are not that important. Having access to high level languages in general is important, but they are a dime a dozen.

[dylan604]

could you imagine the expense of a FAANG having to pay Microsoft Windows licensing for every machine they use? how would that affect a startup's runway?

so instead of the languages, maybe open it up to Linux/FOSS in general

[wizofaus]

Startups I've worked at have struggled with various expenses but OS licenses weren't one of them. OTOH finding devs 100% comfortable working on pure linux machines would be a genuine blocker.

[seba_dos1]

Maybe my perspective is different because I'm relatively young, but everywhere I worked every dev was using GNU/Linux at work and only a tiny minority expressed that they'd prefer macOS. Windows was always something that was used exclusively by non-dev departments (aside of testing machines for checking compatibility). I seem to remember only a single exception, and that was a WordPress developer who worked with and as part of the marketing team, so not sure if it really counts.

[wizofaus]

I don't doubt such shops exist but based on job ads I've seen and interviews I've done they're very much the minority at least in my part of the world. Why a non-iOS developer would choose macOS I don't quite get but each to their own. I'm willing to bet a significant percentage of developers do typically use Windows, even if there is growing tendency to use WSL+Docker for core development activities.

[dylan604]

Non-iOS developer that chooses to use macOS right here. Why? First, because it's not Windows. Second, it runs other software that I need that isn't available on nix. I can run nix style stuff with BSD flair. I can run things native, no VM or docker container. There's lots of reasons. Mainly, I abhor Windows.

[seba_dos1]

One thing I should probably add is that I was mostly talking about webdev circles (these days I work far from webdev on GNU/Linux-centered projects so you obviously don't see Windows there, but this wasn't always the case in my career). However, I'm also pretty close to gamedev circles and, indeed, Windows is still dominant there.

[cosmotic]

There are a lot of alternative programming languages that those companies could have used. There's no GPS alternative for Uber.

[aunderscored]

GLONASS, But that's splitting hairs

[cpursley]

GLONASS is pretty underrated. For example, it powers a whole bunch of vital farm equipment in the US.

https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2016/06/invas...

[seized]

Although the Russian air force planes with a Garmin taped to the control panel may indicate otherwise on that technology....

[cpursley]

I get it, reddit is a fun place to beat up on the Ruskies. But the usage of a Garmin doesn't mean GLONASS is bad.

GPS and GLONASS use different frequencies and redundant signaling systems is common in aviation.

And Garmin actually works with both for a more accurate location:

https://www.getaway.co.za/gear-reviews/news/garmin-russian-s...

[squarefoot]

It could also be a way to better resist to jamming or (government mandated) data pollution by matching the data from the two receivers for significant differences. I'm 100% pro-Ukraine but that looks a smart move to me.

[notagoodidea]

Galileo:P

[fabianhjr]

And now also BeiDou, QZSS, and IRNSS-NAVIC.

[treeman79]

Alt to php at that point in time was usually Perl.

Don’t think Facebook would have succeeded with Perl.

[nequo]

What about Perl would have made Facebook fail? I don't particularly like Perl but I'm curious.

[fabianhjr]

You don't get it, Facebook wasn't just a CRUD from the start and had some niche programming language needs. /s

:P

[icedchai]

Is there a reason Apache w/mod_perl wouldn't have worked?

[dasil003]

Middle three don't feel a major dependency. I would say:

- Twitter without iTunes Podcast Directory (because it killed Odeo, the parent business)

- Facebook without MySpace / Friendster

- Reddit without Digg / Slashdot

[CSMastermind]

Even then they might look different but someone would have had the idea for social media. Those exact companies might not exist or they might look different but it's not like the business model would go away.

Take away GPS and Uber is a fundamentally different product.

[throwaway14356]

If gov does identity and personal data is sensitive it might as well offer social connectivity?

[CSMastermind]

Honestly I'm half expecting the US government to offer an identity service at some point. I know it would probably be challenged on constitutional grounds but it would finally be a somewhat authoritative way to cut down on fake accounts.

[throwaway14356]

Instant value right there!

[trasz]

Reddit is more like Usenet than Slashdot.

I’d say Reddit is literally just a technically inferior version of Usenet.

[dasil003]

Fair point. I was including Slashdot in the Digg lineage, but it does not have social voting/ranking so I probably should have left it off.

[reidjs]

A better analogy may be most those couldn’t exist without the Internet

[axblount]

Maybe this is apocryphal, but I think I remember hearing that Reddit was originally written in some kind of lisp. Not to say it doesn't owe its success to python.

[Phrodo_00]

Very early versions, but they were already using python before you could create your own subreddits, for example (which is around the time when it started becoming more mainstream)

[KMnO4]

IIRC, they were able to fully rewrite it in Python in a weekend. I guess that shows the (small) scale of what it was at that point.

[foobarian]

Why did they need to rewrite it in Python? Isn't lisp more powerful, meaning it would have been easier to create and experiment with more features?

[seba_dos1]

I guess they realized that they would like to start hiring.

[bitwize]

Reddit without Python might still have been written in Lisp!