Brian Kernighan on the origins of Unix

Posted Jan 19, 2022 12:10 UTC (Wed) by cyperpunks (subscriber, #39406)
In reply to: Brian Kernighan on the origins of Unix by jkingweb
Parent article: Brian Kernighan on the origins of Unix

Yep, sometimes I puzzled how Google can earn all that money and have all these brilliant minds; the software they produce and release lacks both pooper documentation and sane release policy. If they sold software the Microsoft way they would be out of business many years ago.

Brian Kernighan on the origins of Unix

Posted Jan 19, 2022 13:56 UTC (Wed) by farnz (subscriber, #17727) [Link]

Technical writing is a very different discipline to software writing, and needs a different set of skills. Unfortunately, too many companies fail to value tech writing, and instead expect that the software authors will write good documentation themselves.

A really good tech writer knows how to take a developer's documentation (written from a place of deep familiarity with the code) and turn it into something useful for people unfamiliar with the code. A software developer just doesn't have that skill.

Brian Kernighan on the origins of Unix

Posted Jan 19, 2022 17:40 UTC (Wed) by mpr22 (subscriber, #60784) [Link] (1 responses)

The trick is that Google doesn't sell software at all.

It sells advertising space (and possibly trademark licences?), and uses a slice of the revenue to pay the salaries of its technology division.

Brian Kernighan on the origins of Unix

Posted Jan 19, 2022 17:42 UTC (Wed) by mpr22 (subscriber, #60784) [Link]

(Also it charges rent on business-use access to its services.)