"Why Software Sucks...and What You Can Do About It"
by David S. Platt
Link: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Why-Software-Sucks-What-About/dp/0321466756/
Reading history and reviews
Finished in 2007
An odd book, this - it starts out like a populist version of Alan Cooper's The Inmates Are Running the Asylum, and goes on to make some excellent points of its own (for example, explaining the issues surrounding software security). So far so good. But then the book seems to lose its way a little, as Platt tries his own take on Cooper's "homo logicus" analogy - at which point I think his true colours as a software developer come out: Platt is actually proud of being one of the geeks, and I think the last part of the book suffers from a lack of focus as a result. I think also some of his arguments late in the book are a little disingenous and self-serving (for example, if you don't like Windows then "why don't you use a Mac instead").
Still I felt I learnt some new things, both as a user and as a writer of software (I found his take on Sun's battle with Microsoft over Java/J++ quite interesting). So I'd recommend it for the first 3-5 chapters.