Is there a slow software movement?

[dwlt@mastodon.me.uk]

@thomasfuchs I’ve read a few proposals on this over the years, currently all I can find is https://jpattonassociates.com/slow_software/ but I’m sure I’ve read others write about it, maybe Wil Shipley?

[sjcooke66@mastodon.social]

@thomasfuchs Isn't that Slackware?🤣

[designfactotum@hci.social]

@thomasfuchs retro- and recreational computing

[nazokiyoubinbou@urusai.social]

@thomasfuchs Well, Debian and Linux Mint both kind of do that.

Debian completely separates its testing stuff into not one but two separate branches that you have to go out of your way even to get to and they almost obsess over it being stable as heck before going to release with things going through testing twice over first.

I don't know how Linux Mint handles things internally, but they similarly obsess over it being stable. So much so that they still aren't even on Wayland yet.

People make the occasional joke, but both are very well respected in no small part due to that stability.

And as much as I appreciate some like Arch (especially some like CachyOS going out of their way to add processor optimizations) if I'm recommending something to someone it's probably Debian or Mint.

[deepbluev7@nheko.io]

@thomasfuchs@hachyderm.io I mean, I do get yelled at for how rarely I do releases, so I would say such software exists, but not sure if we are moving much.

[worldsworstgoth@hachyderm.io]

@thomasfuchs it probably says a lot that in 20+ years, the closest I have seen to Slow Principles (positive) in software has been for gov, not profit.

[breathoflife@infosec.exchange]

@worldsworstgoth @thomasfuchs

doesn't surprise me.

[datarama@hachyderm.io]

@thomasfuchs Today, I saw this little meditation from the developer of Gram, a fork of the Zed editor.

https://gram.liten.app/posts/go-slow-and-fix-things/

[amoshias@esq.social]

@thomasfuchs no. I have it on good authority that software only has to work until you sell the company.

[root42@chaos.social]

@thomasfuchs look at many old open source projects. TeX‘s development has basically become glacial at this point. Also DJ Bernstein used to make pretty solid software with limited feature sets and slow update cycles. qmail and the like.

[tuban_muzuru@beige.party]

@thomasfuchs

Bring this happy gospel to the C Suite, where contractors such as myself are asked to deliver things On Time and on Budget.

"well-tested" and "polished" are punch lines.