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Comment by abrkn | Hacker News Reader

Every program attempts to expand until it has an app store. Those programs which cannot so expand are replaced by ones which can.

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Abrkn's law was born.

Brekken's Law (assuming that's his surname from the email in his profile). It's a snowclone of Zawinski's law of software development[1]:

Every program attempts to expand until it can read mail. Those programs which cannot so expand are replaced by ones which can.

It really is true. My previous employer had a dream of turning their extremely specific web app into a platform, with an app store and everything. I assume that being a platform means big bucks, idk.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamie_Zawinski#Zawinski.27s_la...

It's a snarky observation that hides an important insight: email is the most important thing that the internet does.

Wouldn't the general form of this be every program expands until it implements a plug-in system?

Any examples of programs which has started out as an app in an app store, and then expanded into an app store of its own, and then the app store had swallowed the original app store?

Trying to find the proof of abrkn's theorem

Don't think that's necessarily true. Yes, lots of programs implement app stores or plugin systems. But often the users also don't want to fiddle with add-ons, their installation and settings. They want a good and well-integrated out-of-the box experience. Especially if they are not from the tech domain.

E.g. let's look at Eclipse: It was based purely on AddOns right from the beginning. And still many people want to replace it with other things (probably without AddOns).

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