Brian Kernighan on the origins of Unix [LWN.net]

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.

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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.)