[arnorhs]

To me this article is super valid for most software projects.

As for the Netscape anecdote, I wouldn't put too much weight on that part.

We do not know the extent of it, we do not know if it achieved its goals, and we absolutely can not say whether or not the alleged rewrite contributed to or affected the evolution of the product into firefox and eventually chrome etc

[monksy]

I would go as far as to say the rewrite and aggressive reconcepting of Netscape spurred the growth of newer browsers. NS 6 added too much that people didn't want or didn't want in that context.

My comment above was trying to point out: NS6 rewrite wasn't the only browser to start back from scratch at that time.

What I think Spolksy was advocating for: Don't try to completely rewrite things for fun, there are a lot of dark corners there.