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Why Johnny Won't Upgrade

jacquesmattheij.com

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Re: Why Johnny Won't Upgrade

#441

Post by GoblinSlayer »

__MatrixMan__ wrote: post #178
naavis wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 multiboot Windows 10 Pro and a variety of Unixen. Been doing it for decades and it's been getting harder lately because Microsoft's updates have been acting more and more like they own the place. The most recent nag-you-to-use-edge update didn't just forget to restore the defaultness of my Arch EFI entry--a mistake I could forgive--it deleted it. Luckily I could boot into Debian and restore the entry because the as…

Maybe you have a setting in EFI that the clock is in local time, but just shifted it to show UTC?

Re: Why Johnny Won't Upgrade

#442

Post by de_watcher »

Akronymus wrote: post #290
taneq wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So to sum that up, Johnny Won't Upgrade because like as not, the writers of the updates are The Enemy.

I literally only update apps on my phone when the old version becomes unusable [1] or when the new version actually provides something of worth. For desktop software, most seem to, sadly, be self updating or a website. For example, youtube now has a miniplayer when playing a playlist on desktop. I find that "feature" to be absolutely atrocious and would rather do without it. But due to it being a website they changed…

Btw, desktop youtube redesign is atrocious: it's slow and wastes a lot of screen space. People have to work on browser plugins that use hacks to redirect to the old page. The old design page is thankfully still served, but it can't be accessed without magic and constant breakage.

Re: Why Johnny Won't Upgrade

#443

Post by scarface74 »

GoblinSlayer wrote: post #355
tomc1985 wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you've a following on instagram and you decide to leave for whatever reason, you can't take your followers with you. Maybe some will jump over if you link them to other platforms If you've an iOS app and you've run afoul of the app store, you can't take those iOS users with you without asking them to switch to another platform or asking them to use a web app instead (both of which are forbidden, I think) If you're…

People, who still insist on developing programs for Apple out of greed are in collusion with Apple to strengthen their monopoly and should serve proportional share of Apple's sentence if it's ever to be judged for its anticompetitive business. They can't possibly be ignorant about it today.

How dare people go where 50% of the market is because they care about silly stuff like food and shelter.

Re: Why Johnny Won't Upgrade

#444

Post by bgarbiak »

ubermonkey wrote: post #423
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 do not understand why people use internal "smarts" on so-called SmartTVs at all . These companies are not software companies. They are not trustworthy, either. I have a nice "smart" Samsung. But it's never even been on my network. I get streaming from an AppleTV, but insert your favorite flavor.

It's convenient. No extra configuration, additional devices, cables, remotes, doubled Settings menus, and so on...

Re: Why Johnny Won't Upgrade

#445

Post by bfrog »

Yeah I mean, nothing like the automated android updates that make the phone invevitably slower, less usable, and break previously ingrained interaction flows.

See the gmail app for endless pointless tweaking. It solved email perfectly fine, now it includes meets and some asanine button panel on the bottom taking up a massive amount of space.

My phone hasn't changed, but android has, and thus my phone is almost uselessly slow at this point compared to when I bought it a mere two years ago. Remember the feature phone that worked the same the day you bought it years later? What a blissfully simple device.

Re: Why Johnny Won't Upgrade

#446

Post by scarface74 »

oblio wrote: post #437
scarface74 wrote: post #430

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m sure AppleTV’s will slow down when the batteries get older and they won’t tell you to replace the battery,..

It's just proof of planned obsolescence. For phones it happens one way, for TVs another way.

So do you have a magically solution to keep rechargeable batteries from degrading over time?

Re: Why Johnny Won't Upgrade

#447

Post by Akronymus »

de_watcher wrote: post #442
Akronymus wrote: post #290

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I literally only update apps on my phone when the old version becomes unusable [1] or when the new version actually provides something of worth. For desktop software, most seem to, sadly, be self updating or a website. For example, youtube now has a miniplayer when playing a playlist on desktop. I find that "feature" to be absolutely atrocious and would rather do without it. But due to it being a website they changed…

Btw, desktop youtube redesign is atrocious: it's slow and wastes a lot of screen space. People have to work on browser plugins that use hacks to redirect to the old page. The old design page is thankfully still served, but it can't be accessed without magic and constant breakage.

Also: reddit redesign is godawful. I HATE that designers think that unifying the look and feel of a website for desktop(horizontal screen) and phones (vertical acreen) is a good idea. For example: twitter has practically no difference between mobile and desktop view. And it wastes so much screenspace.

Altough, the reddit redesign sucks on mobile too.

Re: Why Johnny Won't Upgrade

#448

Post by stinkytaco »

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…

To preface this, I'm writing this in Firefox on my Ubuntu laptop with Emacs running in the background. I am onboard for free software.

But I also cannot let perfect be the enemy of good. There are closed source products I use simply because nothing else does the job and the alternative is the job not getting done. I do not know the solution to this problem, but I want there to be an answer to anti-consumer practices in software design (such as not allowing users to downgrade). I realize this creates all sorts of other issues: security, competitive disadvantage for existing products, difficulty complying with new regulation, etc. so perhaps open source is the only true option, but that locks out a lot of users.

Re: Why Johnny Won't Upgrade

#449

Post by yyyk »

scarface74 wrote: post #433
yyyk wrote: post #404

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The alternative is that Apple could tell the user the phone battery was going bad, so they'd buy a new battery rather than a new iPhone. The other alternative is that Apple could test the battery and apply the throttling only when appropriate (rather than generically over entire models). Weirdly, both decisions contributed to Apple's bottom line. What an odd coincidence.

They did not slow down the battery “generically over entire models”. They slowed it down when the battery was degraded. Wouldn’t it be much easier for Apple just not to issue OS updates for older phones if they wanted to encourage users to get new phones?

Making units more disposable makes perfect commercial sense. Making them overtly more disposable might figure out into customer decisions which would be bad for profits. Better be subtle about it.

Re: Why Johnny Won't Upgrade

#450

Post by d4v3 »

viraptor wrote: post #54

I like the main idea here, but the points listed are a bit extreme. Specifically this one: > should never update a user interface without allowing the previous one to be used as the default Are you ready to pay for the ongoing support of all legacy interfaces, including the ones you're not using and which are possibly not used by anyone in the world (no telemetry)? Are you ready for all the bugs and security issues t…

Better solution: make the UI modular and configurable so the user can choose the layout

For file formats, updates changing file scheme need to be backwards compatible

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