Every program attempts to expand until it can read mail. Those programs which cannot so expand are replaced by ones which can.

• Zawinski's Law is about software bloat. Software tends to evolve in a way that continuously more and more features are added.
• There are nevertheless plenty of programs which cannot read mail and never will. So the law is an exaggerated tendency.

Zawinski's Law is rather the description of an effect than an engineering advice. It does not tell which solutions are good and which are bad.

Emacs, Mozilla, Opera, …

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• Zawinski's Law

Discuss this wiki article and the non-principle on the corresponding talk page.