Does this RAD make my ass look fat?

Posted on April 24th, 2009 in General, Software, Tech.

I recently needed to download and install IBM RAD (Rational Application Developer) to do a demo of a Spring project in that environment. It’s been a while since I’ve hard to touch RAD, so time had done it’s magic and put it’s rosy-tinted hue around that last experience, or at least dulled the memory a bit… It’s hard to imagine that something could make Eclipse look svelte and speedy, but I guess if anybody is up to this task it would be IBM. The download was 3GB compressed (!), and in the one archive, includes code for all platforms. What kind of insane product management logic would decide to turn what would probably be something like an already bloated 2GB platform specific download into an even more bloated 3GB multi-platform download?

 

3 responses

  1. [redacted] says:

    Added on April 24th, 2009 at 8:17 pm

    IBM’s standard operating procedure is to take an existing open source product, extend it and/or move the code to their own namespace, and then milk enterprises for $$$.

    There is another organism on this planet that follows the same pattern. Microsoft. It’s embrace and extend, but only at the open source level. I don’t begrudge IBM making money off open source, and I really, really appreciate the huge boon they’ve been to the movement, but for god’s sake, man, please keep it sane.

    Provide value, and not complexity. Make it easier, not harder, to do our job!

  2. iloncar says:

    Added on April 25th, 2009 at 6:41 am

    It’s not that hard to get 3GB. My “open source” eclipse development environment has around 1.5 GB. And I don’t have aspirations towards the UML and modelling stuff. Not to mention hyades, etc.

    It’s not that IBM is insane, Eclipse is HUGE.

  3. Kent says:

    Added on May 6th, 2009 at 11:20 pm

    Hey Colin…

    Imagine doing a network install of RAD- which is what I have to do every time there’s an upgrade. It takes 4+ hours. What’s worse, is I don’t feel like the product is even worth the time it takes to download and install, but unfortunately, I’m not given any other option. :(

    At home, I’m a big fan of NetBeans lately.

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