[markb139]

>I've come to suspect the normal way large companies are organised makes performant software almost impossible.

I think this is a bit of an over generalisation. There were (and still are) many large companies producing performant and reliable software. I suspect when things just work (think of the global phone system) people don't realise how much software is involved. When was the last time you picked up a fixed line hand set and there was a software bug preventing you from calling any other handset on the planet - without varying delays or dropped packets?