The Right Tool For the Job

Years ago, I remember hearing a quote attributed to former Netscape engineer Jamie Zawinski that went something like, “All software expands until it can read email.” I’m sure he was referring to the exponential growth in size of his company’s Web software — something that was inevitable, since they were trying to position the browser as just a component in a much larger Web platform. I’m not sure if JWZ actually said that, since I could find no trace of it on his site (update: here it is). But he certainly is quoted as saying it a lot.

I mention this because I think it’s time for an update. If things keep going at the pace there are, all software will expand until it can aggregate RSS feeds. ​