As a developer, it makes sense to break backward-compatibility if only a very small percentage of your user base is using the old version. Supporting old versions often requires extra resources that I can otherwise spend on building new features.
I've never felt less in control of my own hardware
151–160 of 206 posts
Re: I've never felt less in control of my own hardware
#152Earlier quoted context omitted.
> I turned off auto-updates on my phone. Even if you turn off auto-updates, some things still auto update silently. A long time ago, I wrote a small utility which listened to the PACKAGE_ADDED and PACKAGE_REMOVED events (I don't know if it's still possible to listen to these events on recent Android versions). IIRC, there were two packages that always updated silently (wihout a notification icon) and automatically, e…
Is that a problem? I mean you're using a Google OS. At this point they are selling you a service, not a program. I have no idea what is in one version vs another, and I don't really care as long as the service keeps working. Now, I do still care of being in control of my own hardware, but I do so on my server. I don't know of a cell phone that delivers what I want without being sold as a service rather than a standal…
Yes, it is a problem: no updates means NO UPDATES, it does not mean all updates except for those that ignore the setting. The OS is supposed to enforce such things.
Re: I've never felt less in control of my own hardware
#153Auto Updates without user interaction is the biggest security benefit I can think of for a normal user. Yes you read that right. It's f*cking great that my parents can use an always up to date browser and OS and I don't need to worry if they have updated all their stuff. Update mechanisms like for Java and other stuff which pop-up and require user interaction are a thing most people will not get right. Actually I rea…
> Auto Updates without user interaction Yes, but let's be clear about "without user interaction". That had better include "without user disruption ". Windows 10 is one of the worst abusers here: Updates are forced, and during updates, the computer is suddenly unusable. That is not okay. Debian (derivatives, similar distros, etc.) has done it right for decades . Updates never block the user. Updates are consolidated,…
> Updates never block the user.
Perhaps not intentionally but I always have "sudo pkill unattended-upgrades" close to hand when it pegs all my CPU cores whilst I'm trying to get something done.
Re: I've never felt less in control of my own hardware
#154Earlier quoted context omitted.
Except the baseband is still a binary blob, rendering your phone just as closed and unsafe as it was before.
It's a relative scale. A binary blob isn't ideal from a security and privacy perspective, though given the nature of radio transmissions used with these devices, there are legitimate arguments in its favour as well. In any case, you're still much better off with a device where that is the only unknown factor than you are with a device where apps routinely spy on you and phone home etc.
Agreed. Unless I build my own telco, I have to rely on them for some aspect of this service.
Re: I've never felt less in control of my own hardware
#155Earlier quoted context omitted.
> but it could be fixed if the market demanded it. Meaning, effectively, that it will not be fixed. I understand the frustration. I work on a mobile application that, like Uber, relies on a lot of server-side communication and deliberately stops working if the client is out of date. And I do know that this sucks. But the reality is, our API is non-public, and so there is no pressure from anyone to maintain backward c…
> but it could be fixed if the market demanded it. The market (my mom for example) is unaware there is a fix. > there is no pressure from anyone to maintain backward compatibility. You and your manager are both part of the problem. And the phone makers, because they invented a market place for shit companies that wants to ship unfinished software and push daily updates to their users to eventually reach a point where…
I'll brush off your sneer at my perceived lack of ability. Of course I can do API back-compatibility. But everything comes at a cost that has to be weighted against the corresponding benefit, and the apparent benefit (to management) in this case is near-zero: most people don't care, and the ones who do care aren't going to single out and stop using our app because of it, because all the other apps do it as well. It is, unfortunately, a coordination problem that is not likely to be solved anytime soon.
Re: I've never felt less in control of my own hardware
#156Earlier quoted context omitted.
> but it could be fixed if the market demanded it. Meaning, effectively, that it will not be fixed. I understand the frustration. I work on a mobile application that, like Uber, relies on a lot of server-side communication and deliberately stops working if the client is out of date. And I do know that this sucks. But the reality is, our API is non-public, and so there is no pressure from anyone to maintain backward c…
> but it could be fixed if the market demanded it. The market (my mom for example) is unaware there is a fix. > there is no pressure from anyone to maintain backward compatibility. You and your manager are both part of the problem. And the phone makers, because they invented a market place for shit companies that wants to ship unfinished software and push daily updates to their users to eventually reach a point where…
This is a good point too. There are people unaware of the better way! The world is coming, where one day there won't be anyone left alive who remembers things like:
1. Software that would work, un-modified, for decades.
2. Software that worked without access to some back-end.
3. Software that didn't require permission from a third party to run.
4. Software that didn't collect personal data from users.
5. Having root/admin access to your own computer/devices.
We can still prevent this from coming true, but it's going to happen if nobody pushes back on these practices.
Re: I've never felt less in control of my own hardware
#157I agree wholeheartedly with everything except for pocket. I've never had a service like that become so integrated in my life so fast. I don't even use bookmarks anymore, it's just easier to pool it all together and tag it relevantly. The suggested news is astoundingly fine tuned to my interests as well, much more so than other services that claim to do the same thing. It's become my favorite time killer now just to g…
Do you disagree with the fact that it popped up without notice, or do you disagree with the fact that the person who wrote this article didn't like having it get installed without notice? Because the most important part of this writeup is that it's almost devoid of judgement calls on whether what the updates do are actually good or bad, it's about the lack of control and the lack of any ability to beforehand tell whe…
My perception is probably warped by the fact that I used pocket before I moved to firefox. So after I downloaded firefox after years on chrome, it was a very pleasant surprise to see pocket already there. And to me it was an added value.
But that makes me wonder, is this just an age old gripe with change in general or does this actually add anything new to the conversation. Will we get articles in the next 10 years about how pocket was better and they don't feel in control of their computers because firefox moved to a new system and changed a menu entry?
Re: I've never felt less in control of my own hardware
#158Earlier quoted context omitted.
I agree with you. But.. > "Tinder has been updated. Deal with it". is an interesting choice of example. The anger at updates only really makes sense for apps that are entirely local to your hardware. As soon as you have an app where part of it runs on a server that you don't control, that logic goes out the window. They can stop your non-updated app from working with no effort, just by making the server API incompati…
> It sucks, but that's the reality of SaaS. I'm a fan of using local apps whenever possible. For instance, Google Docs is just too damn useful not to use sometimes. But I still, majority of the time, will choose to use a local word processor whenever I can get away with it. And when I'm done working on a Google Docs project, I download it in several formats and put it in the drawer. Out of curiosity, would you pay fo…
Does the mobile MS Office keep working if it can't connect to the licensing servers for a month? Because the desktop version doesn't.
Re: I've never felt less in control of my own hardware
#159Earlier quoted context omitted.
Is that a problem? I mean you're using a Google OS. At this point they are selling you a service, not a program. I have no idea what is in one version vs another, and I don't really care as long as the service keeps working. Now, I do still care of being in control of my own hardware, but I do so on my server. I don't know of a cell phone that delivers what I want without being sold as a service rather than a standal…
Yes, it is a problem: no updates means NO UPDATES, it does not mean all updates except for those that ignore the setting. The OS is supposed to enforce such things.
Exactly. People are forgetting the word "command". In the old days, users would command computers to do things, and the computers did those things. If I say rm -rf documents, I expect the documents directory to be removed. I'm not suggesting that the computer could do it, or asking the computer to do it. I'm issuing a command. And I expect it to be carried out completely. Delete it all. I don't expect the OS to keep around some dot-files that it really really likes, or to hit me up for confirmation, or to silently ignore me because the OS vendor can make more money by doing so.
It's a huge problem if I tell a computer to do something and it doesn't do it, it does it half way, or it usually does it but sometimes doesn't. We engineers need to have a Hippocratic Oath that starts with: 1. Never put the company's need over the user's intent.
Re: I've never felt less in control of my own hardware
#160Earlier quoted context omitted.
I can certainly imagine the dashboard becoming real estate for ads.
When your car is fully self-driving, I'm sure you will be able to get a discount on the sticker/rental price by agreeing to view some ads on the in-car screens while you ride.
Sure, it will start that way. But we all know how that feature will progress:
1. ads play by default, with an option to pay to remove
then to:
2. forced ads with no option to remove, and the car won't run unless they're playing