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Why Johnny Won't Upgrade

jacquesmattheij.com

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Re: Why Johnny Won't Upgrade

#321

Post by Silhouette »

rglullis wrote: post #310
throwaway_pdp09 wrote: post #267

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you're in the EU you should have a right to send it back. Failing that, if you have a blog, publicise that so others get put off buying that brand. Complain to them (edit: sony) directly also. Don't just sit there are take it, it's what they're relying on.

Does it really matter? If not one brand, you get screwed by another. What we need is a push for free software in consumer electronics. Get any major manufacturer to realize that they can not differentiate on software and stick to making good hardware. The sooner they accept that Google is eating their lunch on the value-add anyway and that the best way to counter them is by commoditizing the software stack. Were I an…

With TVs specifically, this could be a tough sell for manufacturers, because of all the hardware-enabled rights protection that is needed to watch content in certain formats now. There will be some level of exclusive access/control involved as long as those schemes are operating, and that gives them power.

Re: Why Johnny Won't Upgrade

#322

Post by aethertron »

That list of commandments for software updates is pretty good. But we'll be disappointed if we rely on each software vendor to voluntarily conform to them. Some of these could be enforced at the operating system level, I think. And I don't mean a centralised App Store with policy enforcement. I mean OS architecture.

> must allow a revert to the previous situation

So each app on my system would have the base 1.0 version code, plus any number of patches. I could choose to run it with zero or any number of patches up to the current version. And I'd be able to stop subscribing to patches from the vendor if they are taking the software in a nonpreferred direction, and switch to someone else who's forked it. The UI for this would be standardised in the OS, not controlled by the particular app developer.

Re: Why Johnny Won't Upgrade

#323

Post by ilogik »

megablast wrote: post #301
kleiba wrote: post #284

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Careful! Apple might sue you for IP theft.

Apple is one of the few coMpanies you should trust for this.

The iOS 14 runs great on my iPhone 7. it will also run on the 6S, or the 2016 iPhone SE. The new SE will probably get OS updates for around 5 years or so.

Re: Why Johnny Won't Upgrade

#324

Post by hvis »

jacquesm wrote: post #181
darkwater wrote: post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm aware that I will sound condescending but... that's exactly why people "invented" opensource (and/or free software if you prefer). I'm sorry for your problem nonetheless.

App stores and SaaS do an end run around open source.

Yes and no. At least in this case the OP could have installed a different version of the app (older or customized), and kept the 20 years of data usable.

Re: Why Johnny Won't Upgrade

#325

Post by rapnie »

augustk wrote: post #264
jiggawatts wrote: post #252

Don't forget: "Never slow down the user interface". I have a 4K Sony television that was their flagship model when it was new, but a couple of years ago they "updated" it with a new version of its OS that looks identical but is incredibly sluggish. Not technically broken, but frustrating to use. Moving around between menu items is a good 2-3 seconds, up to 10 in some cases. There is literally nothing I can do about t…

IF newTV THEN delay := 0 ELSE (*make customer by new TV*) delay := 10 END

For non-coders, this video by Steve Cutts shows excellently how the concept works: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jid2A7ldc_8

Re: Why Johnny Won't Upgrade

#326

Post by eru »

roenxi wrote: post #314
eru wrote: post #292

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It's much better with computers, though. I am able to decently run modern games on 2015 gaming PC. Linus Torvalds and Bill Gates were and are obsessed with backwards compatibility, and _not_ breaking user programmes. I am not sure how much the Great Man Theory applies here ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_man_theory ) or whether personal computers would have a culture of backwards compatibility without those t…

The winners in the competitive struggle are going to be people who don't break things. People who routinely reset their ecosystem tend to lose then get forgotten. It isn't so much their influence as much as there is a community that is constantly searching for reliable platforms to build on.

> People who routinely reset their ecosystem tend to lose then get forgotten.

ARM seems to be doing well and they release binary incompatible chips every so often. And resetting had long been the norm in the world of games consoles.

So I wouldn't take what we observed in the personal computer industry as a universal truth. It's probably rather contingent.

Re: Why Johnny Won't Upgrade

#327

Post by pitay »

naavis wrote: post #168
mattnewton wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s funny you mention Microsoft, because I have a windows machine to play games on. It regularly updates itself and re-enables telemetry I had disabled, shows spammy news in the start menu and ads for Microsoft products in my toolbar, and reinstalls skype every time I try to get rid of it.

I wonder if there are some differences between Windows 10 versions (like Home, Professional etc) there. I have never had that happen. I have Windows 10 Pro.

I have Win10 Pro. Updates put new 'Apps' on very frequently, the number shown on the Start menu have become a lot larger since install.

The updates turn telemetry on, I haven't even bothered turning it off now, not using Blackbird, or scripting with WMI (you cannot use the Task Scheduler GUI to turn it off ('Microsoft Compatibility Appraiser' under 'Application Experience')), you just get an error unlike everything else.

It used to be quite something to watch the Telemetry read your entire hard drive to do whatever it did, and it did slow the computer down. But it seems to be better now, haven't noticed any performance issues with it at least (Windows Defender is the noticeable one now, but not that bad). Maybe it is better because the EU looked specifically at Microsoft Telemetry and the introduction of GDPR laws, I don't know. It has most definitely taught me to monitor my home PC all the time for things like file access and memory usage.

EDIT: Telemetry may been better for me because it seems it has not been enabled by recent updates (all of 2020), at least for the scheduled task part of it. I was so used to updates re-enabling telemetry that I had assumed that one of them would have after a few months. My bad, and my apologies.

Re: Why Johnny Won't Upgrade

#328

Post by gruturo »

narrowtux wrote: post #320
pmontra wrote: post #269

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I own a LG smart TV. Wary of those and other problems I never connected it to the net. I bought it because it cost only 50 Euros more than the dumb model and the display looked much better, which should be the main point of a TV. If I really want to do smart things with my TV I attach something I control to one of its HDMI ports (phone, tablet, laptop, Raspberry.) I'm not thrilled about the idea of TV sets with an em…

I'm not holding my breath about the TV use-case of 5G. The ISPs will just make it too expensive to allow you to watch as much TV as you like.

The embedded 5G won't be for movies, but for ads, telemetry and forced updates.

Re: Why Johnny Won't Upgrade

#329

Post by Silhouette »

MaxBarraclough wrote: post #245
orev wrote: post #106

I had been using a great app that’s been around since before the iPhone came out (PocketMoney on Palm). They rewrote it for IOS, and it was able to import the database from the Palm version. Really great. Then sadly the author died, and it languished for a while until it was sold to someone else. The new owner seemed to try to keep it going, but then finally gave up last year and crammed an absolutely awful “update”…

This is a real 'Stallman moment'. The issue there is less about updates, than about non-Free software (the thing the FSF talk about), and data silos (the thing the IndieWeb folks talk about). You committed to a non-Free software solution, the maintainers of which held all the power over the software, denying you the freedom to have the software do as you wish. When they make a decision, it's to maximise their benefit…

The modern problem of having your data locked up is a much bigger one than the old arguments about Free Software. Data portability would be a good solution to a lot of the problems with user-hostile technologies.

The trouble is, given the vast range of things we do with technology, it may be unreasonable or impractical to create a universal obligation for software developers to provide export facilities that allow transfer of the data in a standard format. For example, what if there is no standard format, perhaps because your software genuinely does something new or in a different way?

Going after hardware developers who try to contain data within their walled gardens isn't a bad idea, though. For example, the GDPR imposes certain requirements on data controllers to provide for data portability, and imposing similar measures on the makers of devices could both solve immediate problems for some users and provide for much more competition in the marketplace.

Re: Why Johnny Won't Upgrade

#330

Post by silon42 »

pmontra wrote: post #269
jiggawatts wrote: post #252

Don't forget: "Never slow down the user interface". I have a 4K Sony television that was their flagship model when it was new, but a couple of years ago they "updated" it with a new version of its OS that looks identical but is incredibly sluggish. Not technically broken, but frustrating to use. Moving around between menu items is a good 2-3 seconds, up to 10 in some cases. There is literally nothing I can do about t…

I own a LG smart TV. Wary of those and other problems I never connected it to the net. I bought it because it cost only 50 Euros more than the dumb model and the display looked much better, which should be the main point of a TV. If I really want to do smart things with my TV I attach something I control to one of its HDMI ports (phone, tablet, laptop, Raspberry.) I'm not thrilled about the idea of TV sets with an em…

I did the same with my Samsungs... no internet/network. But in the new one, I can't even use it in a private LAN (for DLNA, ...)... without connecting online. Doesn't bother me too much (HDMI from PC is superior anyway), but it would be interesting to have a solution for occasional uses (like streaming from laptop, maybe phone).
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