Starting Over

This article says absolutely nothing. OK, there's a new Basecamp coming. Some people are going to complain when they see it, some people are going to love it. Can we see some details? Maybe a screen shot.<p>A green field "version 2" isn't exactly breaking new ground either.<p>Serious question. Is there a "next page" link on this article that I'm just not seeing?

Rewriting software to start fresh always SOUNDS like a great plan, especially to engineers, but this usually ends up bad for the end user and takes 5 times as long as planned (Netscape anyone?).<p>Basecamp could definitely use a refresh, but as a daily user I do worry something will be lost if it's completely redone.

It will be interesting to see how they go about this. Even ignoring the whole thing about user inertia, I have only heard horror stories on how completely re-writing an app from scratch has caused all kinds of unforeseen problems.

Eventually, it will be interesting to see what functionality people have gotten used to in the current version of Basecamp that doesn't make it over to the next version and how those changes get implemented.<p>People don't always use tools the way they were intended to be used. Because of that, there are non-obvious features/functionality that may not have even been on the drawing board for the next version. Will 37signals go back and re-implement those subtle pieces or will they put a stake in the ground and say "this is the new way forward".<p>It could end up becoming an interesting study on how to bridge the gap with two systems when the next version is a complete rewrite.

<i>The easy thing to do is nothing. But continuing on the current path is a time-tested formula for complacency.</i><p>I wish I heard that from the new RIM CEO.

It'll be bigger, slower, buggier and more expensive (all rewrites are). A hard sell.

This is marketing as content, zzzz.

Maybe this will be their version of New Coke /jk