[ploxiln]

All the big guys do have a history of creating new/novel infrastructure pieces. They create them because they don't (can't really) trust any brand new infrastructure software they they didn't have at least a major hand in creating. You'll notice that if they use a new thing, it's after extensive testing and patching and contributions.

As a small startup, you might not have the time for extensive testing and patching of new hot technologies, which facebook, twitter, netflix do.

[zaphar]

For the big guys it's not about trust. They just hit the limits of the current tried and true before anyone else does and as a result they have to forge new ground.

If you don't run at the same scale as those guys you won't hit those same limits. But if you do reach the scale of those guy's you will find that your needs are suddenly very much a unique snowflake that will require you either creating something new or heavily tweaking something that already exists.

Plenty of time for that when you reach the scale that justifies it though.

[threeseed]

This is simply not true. Many companies in the world (including on this list) do use brand new software that they had no hand in creating. Classic example is in the Big Data space. There are plenty of very early adopters to most of the Hadoop stack e.g. Spark. Or look how many companies started using Nginx or Go even though less shiny solutions have existed.

And not sure if you've worked for a large company but they largely comprise lots of little startups sized teams. The same principles apply regardless e.g. spiking technologies out, managing risk etc.

What I have an issue with is these stupid generalisations. Less shiny = good, Shiny = bad. The merits of the architecture and technology seemed to be completely ignored.

[fsloth]

The common rule of thumb seems to be: Less shiny = battle tested (hey, if it has bullet holes even better), Shiny = not gone even through pre-flight testing.

[threeseed]

On the flip side. Less shiny = more accumulated technical debt.

Which then translates to buggier software as you add more and more new features.

There is a reason we rewrite codebases, no ?

[fsloth]

Analogies. Fail me every time :)

With less shiny I mean that it's old. Not that it is crummy qualitywise. Old code is not like wine. If it was crap then it will be crap now. Old code is like an old house. If it's well made and tended to, and built on solid principles it can last generations.

Extensible domain logic is something that generally does not age well. Old utility libraries with well defined interfaces, on the other hand, are invaluable in technical computing.