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I've never felt less in control of my own hardware

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Re: I've never felt less in control of my own hardware

#201

Post by arbie »

Analemma_ wrote: post #155
yousir wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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 i…

> I'll brush off your sneer at my perceived lack of ability.

This is an admirable sentiment. Thank you for making HN a better place.

> 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

Software can have virtues that do not present short-term benefits, but instead contribute to a wholesome UX, even to captive users. It is the responsibility of the software developer to make these hard calls and stick to their guns in the face of management pressure.

Re: I've never felt less in control of my own hardware

#202

Post by true_tuna »

The real issue is loss of control. “Ask me again later” is dehumanizing because it robs the user of agency. I can’t imagine how a forced windows ten update would have felt. Studies have shown (not to mention common sense) that a feeling of lack of agency is depressing. I recently quit the Mac OS after 20 years of rabid fandom, over the feeling that I wasn’t the one in charge of my Mac. Linux still lets me own my gear and I have to say that a few unpolished areas are worth the renewed sense of agency. Unfortunately there’s no user positive answer for mobile. Android is even worse than iOS. Maybe the black phone will free us from this insanity and put the user first again.

Re: I've never felt less in control of my own hardware

#203

Post by exadeci »

jimmies wrote: post #139
DiNovi wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure how I feel about this; you had the power to not auto update; you exercised it; the company had the power to not allow out of date apps use the service; they exercised it... seems right to me. You put yourself in that situation.

Replace "car-hailing app" with "phone that makes calls", "desktop operating system", "game", "TV that decodes images from airwaves", "car", "firmware to read expiration dates in juicero machine", "running shoes", "watch", "water kettle", "firmware that predicts upcoming heart attacks in pacemaker", "app that displays a map". When do you think it starts becoming ridiculous to demand the rights to not update to the use…

They are a, for profit, every website/app has a tech debt it's inevitable and you are asking them to keep an old API that will cost them more money to maintain as they will have to be careful while updating the database not to break the old API.

You didn't update your apps for a month, it shouldn't be that big of a deal but security fixes, bugs, and new features are several reasons why they need you to keep it up to date.

For example they introduced a new feature allowing drivers to see you on the map so they can find you more easily (you can disable it) most user will add extra pressure on the support by contacting them telling them they don't have that feature while it's 100% their fault for not updating, now if they force updates that's will reduce their costs.

Your view of it is simplistic and you only see your own benefit and not the full picture.

Yes the things you use everyday could stay the same for you and just work but that won't bring any income to the companies, if you buy a juicer that needs to be connected to the internet to work that's your own stupid decision.

Re: I've never felt less in control of my own hardware

#204

Post by moftz »

aidenn0 wrote: post #21
superasn wrote: post #17

Also these updates drain the battery all the time and there is no way to tell them to please stop. At least on Android you can install "greenify app" but for that to work properly, you need to have root and for that you have to unlock the bootloader (for which you have to wait 14 days and also void your warranty). I mean wtf, it's my phone but the design is such that a shit ton of crap always needs to run in the back…

My android phone was configured out-of-the-box to only run autoupdates when plugged in and on wifi. It's easy to see because if I haven't plugged my phone in for a few days, as soon as I do it starts updating like crazy.

You can use your phone for a few days without plugging it in?

Re: I've never felt less in control of my own hardware

#205

Post by silverdrake11 »

summm wrote: post #86
snark42 wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Serious question, do any phones exist that can fully owned by the user? Many (HTC, Google, ASUS, etc. - NOT Samsung) unlocked android phone can be loaded with a variety of bootloaders and then flashed with the ROM of your choice where you have full root access. Of course without google apps (Google Play Store) your phone isn't all that useful, but you can install google apps ( maybe from a questionable legal/copyri…

Yes, but by unlocking you lose every bit of physical security that device had. Anybody having physical access to your phone can then dump the phone's content to a usb drive in kinutes and without any other tool than a otg cable. The makers of the alternative recovery don't bother (who can blame them, they are volunteers) and the manufacurers don't care to implement a proper bootloader that would support reliable re-l…

You can install LineageOS without root / usb debugging enabled

Re: I've never felt less in control of my own hardware

#206

Post by Godel_unicode »

marcosdumay wrote: post #197
Godel_unicode wrote: post #194

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The desktop version absolutely does not have that requirement, you just have to buy the right one. Office 2016 can be installed and used offline without ever talking to a Microsoft server. You're referring to a restriction specific to the Office365 version. If you don't want cloud requirements, don't buy the cloudy version.

You know, "buying the right one" Microsoft product can easily be a full time job. That is, if it is even possible. I was under the impression that the only version of Office available was the 365. But anyway, my workplace brought some version with a clear requirement of getting an eternal license on it. Yet, it breaks all the time because it can't get licenses on the cloud. I am still not sure how MS isn't evading th…

Curious, when I Google "Microsoft Office" the first non-ad response is literally the page explaining which version is which and how much they cost.
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