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Why Johnny Won't Upgrade

jacquesmattheij.com

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Re: Why Johnny Won't Upgrade

#491

Post by hansvm »

flowcont wrote: post #193
hansvm wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Navionics had a variety of bathymetric charts in the app store that underwent a similar fate when they were bought by Garmin. It didn't matter that I'd paid $20-$30 (forget the exact value) for a lifetime license on a piece of software; they felt the need to shove a crippling update onto the version I'd paid for before releasing a new product line. On the bright side, in the years since I bought their app a free, bet…

Off-topic, but what is the Navionics free, better competitor? Thanks.

Polaris Navigation GPS.

It was hyperbolic of me to say that they're "better" in every way, but they cover all my personal marine use cases and several others, so I was excited when I found their app.

Re: Why Johnny Won't Upgrade

#492

Post by EricE »

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.

"The winners in the competitive struggle are going to be people who don't break things."

Search for developer comments about their experiences with Rosetta 2.

Maybe Apple isn't so dumb after all, eh?

What makes the comments on speed even more impressive to me - note that the developer test machines are using a two year old CPU. Originally designed for a battery operated mobile device.

Re: Why Johnny Won't Upgrade

#493

Post by Johnny555 »

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 own a LG smart TV. Wary of those and other problems I never connected it to the net

I own an LG TV and stopped installing updates for the same reason - each update seemed to make it slower.

But the nags get increasingly urgent and my wife eventually installed it.

So now I disconnected it entirely from the network and use a Roku for smart features.

Re: Why Johnny Won't Upgrade

#494

Post by MaxBarraclough »

einpoklum wrote: post #457
hutzlibu wrote: post #403

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"In the long run, the utility of all non-Free software approaches zero." But to be fair, that is allmost true of any software, with changing archtectures programming languages etc. but a thousands times yes! With free software you have at least the option of doing the work of migrating.

Well, depends on what you mean by "long term". BSD-licensed low-level unix programs are still quite useful today and are likely to continue to be very useful in coming decades.

If they're BSD-licensed, that means they're Free Software.

Re: Why Johnny Won't Upgrade

#495

Post by scintill76 »

chrisseaton wrote: post #7

> should never update a user interface without allowing the previous one to be used as the default I don’t understand why people are so precious about their UI and workflow. They obviously managed to learn and adapt to the current UI. Why can’t they adapt to a new one? If you’re super sensitive to something as trivial as a change to a menu location maybe that’s a sign you should be automating whatever your workflow i…

Well, why don't you automate this? https://twitter.com/ChrisGSeaton/status/1234924701513900032 You're annoyed about "[using] up precious minutes of [your] life" when you're in the middle of typing a command and have to context-switch to skimming some barely-related information to accomplish something that should be simple. That's how many of us here feel when we're trying to get a familiar task done, but the UI is frequently reorganizing itself, so we have to stop and look around for something that should be simple.

(Let it be a sign of how bothered I was by your cavalier attitude, that I dug through tweets.)

Re: Why Johnny Won't Upgrade

#496

Post by egypturnash »

chrisseaton wrote: post #45
egypturnash wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't understand why programmers are so precious about their choice of text editor. They obviously managed to learn and adapt to their current choice. Why can't they adapt to a new one?

Well I guess you’re trying to mock me but I also agree with this.

I was attempting to reframe your question to apply to a rough guess of who you are, and what tools you spend most of your life using, based on the fact that you are (a) commenting on HN, and (b) display no sympathy with the plight of a user who's had the UI they stopped having to think about ages ago suddenly change out from under them. Probably with deadlines looming that have no room for "everything takes twice as long for a while while we get used to the new setup and the fact that one key we regularly hit as part of the process now deletes half our work".

Is that mocking you?

Re: Why Johnny Won't Upgrade

#497

Post by out_of_protocol »

dt3ft wrote: post #339
viraptor wrote: post #223

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It depends on a question though. "Do you want a UI redesign?" will likely be a no. "Do you want to access the thing you're using 100 times a day in 1 click rather than 5 menus?" will always be a yes. Unless the company is completely failing at its strategy (and that's not the same thing as many vocal people saying that on the internet forum), the redesign has goals and some reason behind it. Your "worse" may be solut…

We tend to underestimate the value that a decent UI/UX professional can bring to a software product. Users typically hate changes (change aversion is in the human nature) and will hardly notice any improvements. But try to install an older piece of software, say, Microsoft Word 97 and compare usability to the current version. Don't pick one feature, look at it from a daily usage perspective. I bet you'll find a ton o…

Actually launched Word97 recently. Surprisingly good UX, at least for simple documents

Re: Why Johnny Won't Upgrade

#498

Post by ryandrake »

Akronymus wrote: post #428
hutzlibu wrote: post #406

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Updates are really important in terms of security. The problem here is the hostile relationship from the companies to their customers.

Most updates seem to eschew security in favor of new "features" or "improvements". And even if they say security they usually bundle it with other changes, along with not even saying what kind of security change. Give me a vulnerability tracker and what has been fixed, and I'll actually update your app. For me, the "added security" is just not worth it MOST of the time. Partially due to actually only installing apps…

I would buy the "updates are important because security" line of reasoning if software developers would bother to release security-only patches to old software, but most don't. Unfortunately, you need to take the bad (UI re-designs, unwanted features, changed file formats) with the good (securest fixes), so I unfortunately often decide to keep the old, slightly more vulnerable software.

Re: Why Johnny Won't Upgrade

#499

Post by wlesieutre »

bitwize wrote: post #464
grishka wrote: post #432

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm sure it does not because modern mobile OSes would alert the user to it, but even if it did, there's an easy fix: don't install the app. For when you do need Facebook, use the mobile website.

Currently you MUST install Messenger (or use Facebook's retro mobile site for old Windows Mobile phones) to send/receive messages. Eventually, their mobile site will be nerfed and a popup will appear saying "Facebook is best experienced with the app".

Facebook can only listen to audio if you give it microphone permission, and even then the iOS 14 beta would have made it visible if they were turning the mic on when they shouldn't be. Even if they make you install the app they aren't using it to passively listen for ultrasonic signals from your television.

Re: Why Johnny Won't Upgrade

#500

Post by bilalq »

agloe_dreams wrote: post #351
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…

Oh, did you get the ads yet? My Sony TV randomly started showing sponsored content on the Home Screen.

This has been the biggest transgression I've had to deal with from my TV. I've absolutely decided I will never purchase a Sony TV ever again and would actively recommend that others avoid them as well. It's absolutely ridiculous that such an expensive device that I've purchased is being used as billboard.
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