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by QuadmasterXLII 78 days ago
There is a kernel of truth here: programs like CMake, Wordpress, or Electron get insane volumes of hate because they tackle extremely hard, extremely valuable problems half-assedly in a field of competition where no one else manages even a quarter of an ass. The hate stems from usage * not being that good, the usage stems from being the best.

I do worry that applying this heuristic at microsoft is unwise, because microsoft is so famously good at getting people to use software against their will- if usage decouples from being the best, then the hate becomes shoved-down-throat-factor * not being that good, which is a very different place to stand and declare onesself to be helping.
2 comments
palmotea 78 days ago
> Electron get insane volumes of hate

I don't know about the others, but I "hate" Electron more because I don't think the the devs of the software I use should have chosen it. It doesn't have anything to do with the Electron team (I think).

For instance: MS Teams. Microsoft has the skill and resources to develop cross-platform desktop software. They should have done that for something as widely used as Teams.

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darkstarsys 73 days ago
I hate CMake as much as anyone, but I actually did something about it: https://github.com/DarkStarSystems/pcons. As one of the original developers of SCons, I tried to get the best parts of SCons and CMake into a simple, modern, python-based software build tool. I take toolsmithing seriously, so I plan to build pcons into a strong, useful open-source project.
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