

Is software eating the world, or vice versa? - yarapavan
http://radar.oreilly.com/2012/11/to-eat-or-be-eaten.html

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weej
Can't help, but think of...

    
    
      they lied to us
      this was supposed to be
      the future
      where is my jetpack,
      where is my robotic companion,
      where is my dinner in pill form,
      where is my hydrogen fueled automobile,
      where is my nuclear-powered levitating home,
      where is my cure for this disease

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skreech
Whether you're adding software to physical items or replacing physical supply
chains with software, I think Andreessens point is that software is a high
value activity.

While the Internet of Things is about connecting physical objects, the cool
thing is that they're connected, and integrated, which requires software to
handle the complexity.

~~~
gregsq
However software is becoming commoditised, while hardware is now appearing to
involve quite a degree of inventiveness, a characteristic following from the
growth in low powered ARM devices, among others.

You can get a Som board with a Texas Instruments Omap 5, say from Phytec,
running, well Android or Linux, or maybe a Exynos 5 running, well, Android or
Linux. Or a plethora of others doing the same thing, like Raspberry Pi.

From the hardware viewpoint, it could be said that you do indeed eat the OS.

~~~
nileshtrivedi
I think it's only the software _infrastructure_ (like operating systems,
languages/compilers, libraries and frameworks) that's becoming commoditised.
The market for actual solutions remains vibrant as ever. Be it automated car-
driving or 3D-printing, or payment gateways, there is no commoditization for
apps for new problems.

~~~
gregsq
Absolutely. On these devices the OS or even RTOS's for them are just the basis
for further coding to accomplish this different conception of value added
functionality. But unlike, say an iOS app, which leverages an underlying
software platform ( running even on outstanding hardware ), these hardware
efforts leverage the power of the devices and their peripherals. It's all back
to C ( or maybe assembler or C++ ), and the code is more and more a
facilitator for the hardware's value.

I should make myself clear that I'm thinking about hardware solutions that
differ from current consumer products in the main, such as general purpose
computers, or tablets and phones and so on.

But you're absolutely right that anything programmable requires software.

------
fleitz
It's both.

The world 'eating software' is what is fuelling growth around the world.

Software eating the world is what is causing huge accumulations of capital in
the world's largest tech firms, even though the total share of revenue by
software companies is tiny.

