>Even if it took half a century for the reliability to be 'right up there' what excuse do we have for sofware then? We're getting quite close to that half century.
For one, software is an ever-changing thing (new requirements, updates, changes to the OS and libraries etc). Something like a telephone network can basically be deployed and then just maintained.
Second, the complexity of our software stack in a modern OS is many times bigger than the phone network's. And it also plays together, with any random program the user might want to install.
Third, what the software can do now, is amazingly different (and more powerful) than what it did in 1950. E.g real time multiple video/audio stream manipulation with filters, and face recognition and what have you (and that's just on one app -- we're also running 20 others at the same time) -- compared to doing some simple business/math calculations.
Whereas the phone network still basically does the same thing: transfers data from one point to another and routes calls. It's an extremely more narrow field.
For one, software is an ever-changing thing (new requirements, updates, changes to the OS and libraries etc). Something like a telephone network can basically be deployed and then just maintained.
Second, the complexity of our software stack in a modern OS is many times bigger than the phone network's. And it also plays together, with any random program the user might want to install.
Third, what the software can do now, is amazingly different (and more powerful) than what it did in 1950. E.g real time multiple video/audio stream manipulation with filters, and face recognition and what have you (and that's just on one app -- we're also running 20 others at the same time) -- compared to doing some simple business/math calculations.
Whereas the phone network still basically does the same thing: transfers data from one point to another and routes calls. It's an extremely more narrow field.