I think this is very much a generational thing. Spolsky writes a trendy blog that anyone reading Hacker News will be familiar with. Kapor, like Gates, is one of the titans of the early PC world. But that also means his most relevant work (Chandler being only famous for failing in an interesting way) happened before many of the readers here were born.
Another question, how relevant is Kapor to our daily work TODAY? I don't happen to use Lotus Notes, but I have learned a thing or two from Joel's articles. That is why I remember his name and keep reading his blog.
I don't mean to diminish it's achievement, it is just that it does not play a big role in my life. I use Open Office maybe 20 times a year to write some business letters. That's it.
