You have to make some allowances for first movers. The designs of new tools are often ill conceived because they have no templates to steal ideas from. But the emotional investment often keeps them from switching to better tools because We’ve Always Done Things This Way.
The thing that bugs me most about my company’s tools are the ones that are enough younger than OSS solutions that someone either didn’t look very hard, or didn’t want to find anything (so they could write their own). Other priorities come along and those tools eventually can’t keep up with OSS alternatives, but the apologists take over.
You will not continue to get accolades for tools you wrote three years ago. The only “value” you derive is the time and effort it saves, offset my the effort expended. The time and effort expense of external tools are often lower. And, when the tools are annoying, you can commiserate with your coworkers instead of being the target of their criticisms. Which is often under-appreciated.
The thing that bugs me most about my company’s tools are the ones that are enough younger than OSS solutions that someone either didn’t look very hard, or didn’t want to find anything (so they could write their own). Other priorities come along and those tools eventually can’t keep up with OSS alternatives, but the apologists take over.
You will not continue to get accolades for tools you wrote three years ago. The only “value” you derive is the time and effort it saves, offset my the effort expended. The time and effort expense of external tools are often lower. And, when the tools are annoying, you can commiserate with your coworkers instead of being the target of their criticisms. Which is often under-appreciated.