2003-05-08 12:05:00

The software industry is not dead

I see lots of discussion lately about the possibility that software is a dead industry, or that perhaps the good times are behind us.  I myself am fond of moaning that I was born ten years too late, missing out on the frontier-like climate of the software industry in the eighties. 

But the software industry is alive and there are plenty of good times ahead.  I think lots of cool products are wanting to be built.  Not very many of them will get you VC funding or put you on your way to the NASDAQ.  But this isn't a bad time to build a successful small ISV.

Need ideas?  I just finished reading Carlos Perez' 101 Reasons Why Java is Better than .NET.  Note that I certainly don't agree with the claim made in his title.  Some of his items are FUD or just plain wrong.  But some of those items are accurate. 

We .NET fans have to admit that Java has been around longer and therefore has things that are not yet available in the .NET ecosystem.  You can view those things as disadvantages of .NET or you can view them as product opportunities.  Carlos' list could have been titled 101 Product Ideas for a .NET Small ISV.  I'm not saying that all those ideas are good ones, but something on the list might get the idea flow started.