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  • Jens Finkhäuserjens@social.finkhaeuser.de
    Aug 4, 2026, 7:12 AM

    Now a big change rolls around. Making that change fast is going to take C1 time. Making that change such that the code base remains reasonably clean will take C2 time, where C2 > C1.

    What we're really asking is this:

    Is (N * T * F) - (N * T) larger or smaller than (C2 - C1)? That is, is the cost of doing things well higher than the difference in TCO that stems from doing things well vs. doing things fast?

    Hey, look, I can put this in business-y terms after all.

    I can't answer this for the...

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  • Jens Finkhäuserjens@social.finkhaeuser.de
    Aug 4, 2026, 7:16 AM

    ... firefox code base. What I can say is that the answer to that always depends. There is usually a way to guesstimate a reply based on the historical data of the project.

    But what's *also* clear here IMHO is that the time to ask this question is *when a big change* comes.

    It's always too late to ask this when several such big changes have been haphazardly flanged together.

    But the question that is being asked instead is about benefit, not about TCO.

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