Of course, Shrink-wrap 2020-2025 is not exactly the same as Shrink-wrap 1995-2000. You mentioned digital distribution. Speaking from my lived experience... We shipped software on golden masters that were used to manufacture DVDs at scale.
At that time, the entire software industry worked on long release cycles because of the friction of shipping software on manufactured media. And in those days, people read physical dead tree computer magazines, which had long lead times for articles. This affected software development, because months before we were scheduled to "ship," we were sharing screen shots with journalists, doing interviews, and placing stories in magazines timed to drop when we released.
I remember a death march to get a product ready so that we'd have DVDs to give away at JavaOne in the Moscone Center, where our CTO was scheduled to give a talk. The way software was distributed in those days all strongly influenced the way companies attempted to manage software development.
Of course, Shrink-wrap 2020-2025 is not exactly the same as Shrink-wrap 1995-2000. You mentioned digital distribution. Speaking from my lived experience... We shipped software on golden masters that were used to manufacture DVDs at scale.
At that time, the entire software industry worked on long release cycles because of the friction of shipping software on manufactured media. And in those days, people read physical dead tree computer magazines, which had long lead times for articles. This affected software development, because months before we were scheduled to "ship," we were sharing screen shots with journalists, doing interviews, and placing stories in magazines timed to drop when we released.
I remember a death march to get a product ready so that we'd have DVDs to give away at JavaOne in the Moscone Center, where our CTO was scheduled to give a talk. The way software was distributed in those days all strongly influenced the way companies attempted to manage software development.