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user-inactivated  ·  3471 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Ask Hubski: What would you do with your free time if you didn't have to work?

Proprietary software for scientists and engineers all tends to have the same problem; their users aren't (primarily) programmers, so they'll only write their own tools if it doesn't take too long or there's nothing close to what they need available, but they will figure out a way to solve their problems with whatever they can find. It's really, really hard to write software so shitty those guys won't be able to make it work, and as long as they can make it work they'll be content. That makes it hard to make a commercial case for doing any better than just good enough.