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Why Johnny Won't Upgrade

jacquesmattheij.com

391–400 of 588 posts

Re: Why Johnny Won't Upgrade

#391
post #205
post #194

Earlier quoted context omitted.

10 years ago, I found some software updates annoying. 5 years ago, I found most of them aggravating. Now, I find them to be outright harmful except for rare cases. It's very common for (particularly mobile software) to just break the product entirely. Features I regularly used and depended on--sometimes even the main features--are just deleted. Gone, with zero chance of using it again. Sometimes ads are thrown in, ad…

Can you give me an example of the last time you faced a harmful, work-destroying update? Because that hasn't occurred to me in any product for years, and I always install manufacturer updates the day they are released.

Firefox on mobile a few days ago.

We developed an extension for client, as part of a solution. Now it doesn't work on most of clients phones anymore, Client is quite upset (we told him this might happen, but he is still upset and wants us to fix it, we still haven't found a robust solution that wouldn't be either total rewrite or side loading old unsupported browser)

Re: Why Johnny Won't Upgrade

#392

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

The number of users who don't set up WiFi for their TV is not enough to warrant this.

Re: Why Johnny Won't Upgrade

#393
post #154

Software version control by users is going the way of ham radio and people who repair their own cars. Not completely extinct, but such a small set of technically capable people that in practice it doesn't matter. Real users don't know and don't care about software versions. They want computing experiences that "just work". They don't care or know about where the software runs, if there is telemetry, what the underlyi…

Disagree that people don't care. Maybe not all the time, but sooner or later everybody experiences a bad update (bad timing, crashing app, consuming a mobile plan costing $$$). Agree that most are powerless to fight it but the worst offenders are working hard to keep the status quo.

I didn't say people don't care. Issues like crashing app is exactly what people care about and where you should focus your time (or the data plan example). My point was people don't know or care about underlying data formats, so don't worry about that unless it affects the real user workflow.

Re: Why Johnny Won't Upgrade

#394
post #373

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 needed an all-in-one solution for streaming (Netflix, Prime, Spotify, Jellyfin, ...) so I went with an Nvidia Shield Pro on the HDMI port. Any smart TV is a dumb TV for me. I'll make it "smart" myself, the old fashioned way, as you described. One downside of HDMI is max 60 FPS, so its limited for gaming and OKish for interactive (such as navigation through menu or simple browsing) yet should be adequate for any vie…

60fps is not a limitation of HDMI.

I have an LG OLED that has HDMI 2.1, which can do 4k120fps (at least). Unfortunately current-gen GPUs only support HDMI 2.0, so I am limited to 1440p120fps or 4k60fps for the time being.

Re: Why Johnny Won't Upgrade

#395
post #377

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Having committed to free software to solve a few problems, I'd say it's not all that rosy either. I wouldn't say I have much more control over the open source software I use. I spent more time fighting desktop Linux than I did fighting Mac OS. I spent hours setting up self-hosted software that's more often than not just passable. Now I control the data, but I'm also responsible for it. I have to worry about updates,…

You have ultimate control over free software, but the costs of maintenance become yours. Take some of the money you're saving from not purchasing proprietary software licenses and pay whoever you want to manage the complexity for you.

I will concede that in the context of personal-use software this is less applicable than, say, in a business context, but it's still applicable.

Re: Why Johnny Won't Upgrade

#396
NixOS just provides that: you don't need to upgrade, but even if you do, you can go back to any previous versions that are guaranteed to work.

Imagine a phone with updates like that…

Re: Why Johnny Won't Upgrade

#397

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well it will go on longer if people are encouraged by those that are capable to stay ignorant. Also Rome wasn’t built in a day.

Keep arguing that. You will eventually give up. Stupid does not see reason and you know what they say about the people who fight it. Remember that "above average" intelligence excludes 50% of the population. So unless you're scheming on ways to raise the tide for all boats, give up. There are plenty of enablers out there, but there are also plenty of jaded souls who do not see this as a war that they can win.

You don't represent stupid people, you make money on them taking advantage of the monopoly, you don't care about their interests. And they aren't as dysfunctional as you want to make them look like, they don't need to figure out everything by themselves, they can understand what they hear.

Re: Why Johnny Won't Upgrade

#398

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a social life without facebook, and I have a job without linkedin. You don't need them, you choose to use them.

No, you don't need them, but have fun filling in those blanks on your own time for 10x-100x the effort. Hope none of those missed connections are important, and I hope nobody gives you a pregnant pause after you insist, "no, I don't use Linkedin" at your next networking event. Network effects are strong. Too strong.

You are buying into the hype.

Most people will find work through indeed linkedin may give you a 5% boost. If you say you don't have a resume..

Why would you need facebook messenger installed when you want fb events. Just login to the web version click events.

Re: Why Johnny Won't Upgrade

#399
post #373

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I needed an all-in-one solution for streaming (Netflix, Prime, Spotify, Jellyfin, ...) so I went with an Nvidia Shield Pro on the HDMI port. Any smart TV is a dumb TV for me. I'll make it "smart" myself, the old fashioned way, as you described. One downside of HDMI is max 60 FPS, so its limited for gaming and OKish for interactive (such as navigation through menu or simple browsing) yet should be adequate for any vie…

60fps is not a limitation of HDMI. I have an LG OLED that has HDMI 2.1, which can do 4k120fps (at least). Unfortunately current-gen GPUs only support HDMI 2.0, so I am limited to 1440p120fps or 4k60fps for the time being.

OK, it was a limitation of HDMI, and most devices still use that old HDMI standard, so practically it still is a limitation until the new HDMI versions are more common. On my monitors, I use DP whenever I can.

Re: Why Johnny Won't Upgrade

#400

If I open the Play Store on my Android, I see 28 updates pending. Why haven't I hit Update All? Well, lets see what the release notes say (i.e. why should I update): New features added and bug fixes. Information not provided by developer. Bug fixes and enhancements. Information not provided by developer. (Description makes it clear it will break something for me). We're always making changes and improvements :) Infor…

Update: I wish I didn't update Firefox as now I can't open about:config

I hate software so much...

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