Re: "killer"?

["Arlen P. Walker" <Arlen -dot- P -dot- Walker -at- JCI -dot- COM>]

      On Thu, 1 Dec 1994, Brown, Mordechai wrote:

      > We are a small company that is producing a large documentation set
      > for our killer client/server product (currently under development).

      What exactly does this mean? Is this really common jargon in the industry
      now? This is the second or third time I've seen this term used on the
      list and I hate it. In my experience, "killer" means "great" or "really
      cool", which seems like a stupid label for software. So what does it mean
      in this context?

Yes, Matt, it's standard. (BTW, do you *really* mean to say that no software can
possibly be "great" or "really cool?" Or even that it might be stupid to call
software that? If so, you might want to remember that one man's liquor is
another man's poison.) A "killer app" is an application which drives a market.
Lotus 1-2-3 was a "killer app" which drove the PC market into accounting shops.
Pagemaker was the "killer app" which drove the Mac into many publishing areas.
Perhaps Mordecai is saying his company hopes their client-server app will do the
same.

Or perhaps he's just saying he thinks his company's software is "great" or
"really cool." If he is, what's stupid about that?


Have fun,
Arlen
Chief Managing Director In Charge, Department of Redundancy Department
DNRC 24

Arlen -dot- P -dot- Walker -at- JCI -dot- Com
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