Tired of and a bit amused by the Betamax trope. When VHS debuted with a two hour recording time, Betamax couldn’t hold more than an hour’s worth of video, making it a horrible fit for most films and sports. The workarounds for this involved compromising the picture quality advantage. Beta was also more expensive. This was not some case of being outmarketed, or unlucky: Betamax was worse technology than VHS. And while git’s design leaves much to be desired (which modern VCSs like jj make clear), there is a helluva lot of great technology in it.
I wanted to point this out also! The entire meme of "better technology that lost in the market" really appeals to a certain kind of person who is somehow always also intolerable.
Comments
Tired of and a bit amused by the Betamax trope. When VHS debuted with a two hour recording time, Betamax couldn’t hold more than an hour’s worth of video, making it a horrible fit for most films and sports. The workarounds for this involved compromising the picture quality advantage. Beta was also more expensive. This was not some case of being outmarketed, or unlucky: Betamax was worse technology than VHS. And while git’s design leaves much to be desired (which modern VCSs like jj make clear), there is a helluva lot of great technology in it.
I wanted to point this out also! The entire meme of "better technology that lost in the market" really appeals to a certain kind of person who is somehow always also intolerable.