Joel Won’t Be on Software Anymore

Joel on Software — by ex-Microsoft veteran and Fog Creek CEO Joel Spolsky — has been my favorite tech-world blog by far for the past decade.

In two weeks, he’s going off the air — for good, he says, in both senses of “for good.”

Joel, you’ll be missed.

I can think of no one in the tech world with more common sense than Joel, and perhaps only Scott Berkun was his equal.

If you’re a techie, read Joel’s prescient comments on how Microsoft lost a key developer market — written six years ago. (If you know who Don Box is, don’t read the last few paragraphs while drinking milk.) If you’re not a techie, read the section titled The Two Forces at Microsoft, about a third of the way down the page. Even if you don’t understand a few specific references in there, it’ll give you an enormous insight into why Windows has captured market share over the years, one that few folks outside of Microsoft recognize. (It’s also one that increasingly few folks inside Microsoft recognize, unfortunately, though I think Steven Sinofsky, the head of Windows for the past three years who shipped a high-quality Windows 7 in a timely manner, does get it.)

I completely understand Joel’s reasons for abandoning blogging. It’s a significant endeavor, if you try to do it well. (I may not be in Joel’s league, but I do try try to write well, and it takes a fair amount of time even for someone who is a fluid, fluent author.)

I understand it, but I’ll still miss his insights on the world of technology, and on the larger world in which technology lives.