NetServOS is dead, long live netservnyc

So today I noticed space on one of my servers was starting to run low. I’ve had NetServOS shut down for several weeks, so I figured I guess it’s time to move off all the data. It was surprisingly easy. Poof, all gone. Well, archived…

I never really explained to anyone why I thought NetServOS failed – and it’s been a very gradual process of acceptance for me to realize it had. But it did. Here’s why:

1. Marketing was an afterthought – figuring out who to market to and how was important to do far, far earlier in the process.
2. What was, in the end, a user-interface technology had a terrifyingly bad user-interface.
3. No killer App. No OS wins without a killer app. Maybe the mail piece could’ve gotten better, but “killer?” No. And it was never designed to be one.
4. Boil the ocean plan. There was only one way to integrate – my way, and my model. No way to tie in non-compliant apps. No way to use an application’s already-existing authorization/authentication model. No easy way to interoperate without switching to my method
5. Too honest for my own damned good. Why did I feel compelled to figure out the financial model BEFORE I had a market? I knew the Slashdot crowd wouldn’t like the idea of Stuff costing Stuff. I should have shut up and grabbed the hobbyists, and when one of them started making money, then I could’ve worked something out.
6. marginal utility. No one really “needed” me. I should’ve found a way to be needed.

Here’s my stop. To Be Continued…?