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Stefano Marinelli
Stefano Marinelli
@stefano@mastodon.bsd.cafe  ·  activity timestamp 6 days ago

The Virtue of Finished Things

An email asking if my software was abandoned made me realize how the ideal of completeness has disappeared from our lives. In an era of mandatory updates and disposable goods, I reflect on the value of boring software - the kind that is finished, reliable, and simply does its job.

https://my-notes.dragas.net/2026/01/06/the-virtue-of-finished-things/

#MyNotes #World #Reflections #IT #Life #Blogging

The Virtue of Finished Things

An email asking if my software was abandoned made me realize how the ideal of completeness has disappeared from our lives. In an era of mandatory updates and disposable goods, I reflect on the value of boring software - the kind that is finished, reliable, and simply does its job.
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Stefano Marinelli
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TomAoki
TomAoki
@TomAoki@mastodon.bsd.cafe replied  ·  activity timestamp 6 days ago

@stefano
I think there are FUDs.
"No updates" could cause them (especially security officers) fear whether or not there are vulnerabilities, even if there are actually none by design and "the size of codes".
Maybe announcements "We've reviewed our code finding CVExxx for product A by (3rd party name), resulting no same vulnerabilities exists in our codes. You don't need to worry about updates here." could help? "Updates" are not limited with codes.

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Dave Polaschek (he/him)
Dave Polaschek (he/him)
@davepolaschek@writing.exchange replied  ·  activity timestamp 6 days ago

@stefano Having software that’s “done,” doesn’t fit into any business plan people can think of. And yet it was always what I aspired to, as well.

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Peter K.
Peter K.
@vagnretur@social.spejset.org replied  ·  activity timestamp 6 days ago

@stefano The versions of TeX started with version 3. The next update was 3.1, then 3.14, 3.141, 3.1415, etc. The current version is 3.141592653. Each update adds a digit of pi, with the idea that every update makes it not much larger, but closer and closer to the ideal pi.

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Stefano Marinelli
Stefano Marinelli
@stefano@mastodon.bsd.cafe replied  ·  activity timestamp 6 days ago

@vagnretur this is great

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Eye
Eye
@grb090423@mastodon.social replied  ·  activity timestamp 6 days ago

@stefano

A really interesting read. Thanks 👍🙂

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Anita Lewis
Anita Lewis
@ajlewis2@social.vivaldi.net replied  ·  activity timestamp 6 days ago

@stefano

Absolutely right! I use several programs that are rarely upgraded and work very nicely. Bluefish and calibre immediately jump to mind. Both have slowly added features over around 20 years that I've used them and have stayed solid. I have another one for maybe 5 years that has glitzy new features often and a couple years ago a bug appeared that is annoying and limiting. The upgrades keep coming (one came this morning) and the bug I reported and got an email back saying they are a small shop, etc., is still there.

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Marios Efstathiou
Marios Efstathiou
@marios@mastodon.bsd.cafe replied  ·  activity timestamp 6 days ago

@stefano

Thank you for sharing. Interesting read

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Tim Ward ⭐🇪🇺🔶  #FBPE
Tim Ward ⭐🇪🇺🔶 #FBPE
@TimWardCam@c.im replied  ·  activity timestamp 6 days ago

@stefano That's fine if your users don't insist on regular updates to dependencies to fix each day's crop of CVEs.

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chesheer
chesheer
@chesheer@mastodon.bsd.cafe replied  ·  activity timestamp 6 days ago

@stefano Thank you for an amazing piece. Just recently I thought about some examples of "feature-complete" software and how it's actually important.
fluxbox and lilo come to mind.

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Peter Kotrčka
Peter Kotrčka
@peterk@masto.es replied  ·  activity timestamp 6 days ago

@stefano but if you have no updates, how can you build a subscription model for your app? 🤔

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Stefano Marinelli
Stefano Marinelli
@stefano@mastodon.bsd.cafe replied  ·  activity timestamp 6 days ago

@peterk exactly

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