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Browsers are essential and how operating systems are holding them back (2022) [pdf] (2022)
141–150 of 349 posts
Re: Browsers are essential and how operating systems are holding them back (2022) [pdf] (2022)
#142I can't honestly even consider reading this from the vendor in question. I appreciate Firefox and use it on a regular basis but no browser, OS vendor or standard agency out there has an ounce of respect left from me. Nothing any OS vendor or browser vendor has done in the last decade has been a user-focused positive experience. They have become delivery tools for revenue only rather than information access. Even Fire…
> Nothing any OS vendor or browser vendor has done in the last decade has been a user-focused positive experience. They have become delivery tools for revenue only rather than information access. Succinctly put. I've felt this shift everywhere; it killed the fun and curiosity I felt when I first encountered computers and the web. I can't recommend anything in good faith. When I open a new website or program I dread t…
> a first date where I scold the lady on her use of proprietary software: "Please install this XAMPP-Mastodon-Matrix chat app from the F-Droid store or I won't speak to you again"
The hero we needed, unsung and forgotten.
Re: Browsers are essential and how operating systems are holding them back (2022) [pdf] (2022)
#143Title had me expecting something akin to window decorations versus seamless free form, web service widgets and integrating browser features with operating system functionality. Instead this is about bundling default software and manipulating user choices of default software. Looking at AR/VR and voice agent appliances that debate may be more relevant again, as I don't think anyone even dares to hope for free choice o…
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Re: Browsers are essential and how operating systems are holding them back (2022) [pdf] (2022)
#144I do a lot of systems engineering-level work on Linux and was surprised to see this title. The paper talks about how corporations behind commercial operating systems exploit their position and suppress user choice and use other shady tactics. The title of this paper is a bit inaccurate it should at least say "... commercial operating systems".
I recall a moment in history when ffmpeg had some infighting and some dinguses forked off, followed by Ubuntu moving packages over from ffmpeg to said fork in its repos because the package maintainer was one of the dinguses. So no, Linux is not innocent of the crime of corralling users towards its own interests. EDIT: Was the distro Debian? It's so long ago my memory is foggy, but it was one of the two.
It was Debian, with libav. Presumably Ubuntu followed suit, as they tend to.
Re: Browsers are essential and how operating systems are holding them back (2022) [pdf] (2022)
#145Earlier quoted context omitted.
Excuse me, your conclusion doesn't seem to follow from your premises. I mean, "Please OS vendor I want something simple. That hidden `sideload` option is complicated, please lock down my machine." Like, seriously? No one's that stupid. Sure most people want a decent, clear default option, but no one want that to be the only option. At least not for themselves. Because for some reason I see many people arguing that ot…
>"Please OS vendor I want something simple. That hidden `sideload` option is complicated, please lock down my machine." I could easily turn that characterization around. "Please OS vendor, I want something that just works, please don't add customization options that I will never use but if I accidentally select will effectively brick my machine for the technical skill level I have." I might be dating myself here but…
People, especially when looked at them in general, it turns out, don't care about general principles. (And sort of rightfully so, because in the last thousands of years almost literally all questions of importance were not questions of principle. Which noblehouse should give the new king? None!? Yeah, that's not a good option. And so on.)
Software and these hyperglobal platforms are where principles actually start to matter. (It did not matter even in politics. In principle free speech, sure, but also no generated kiddie porn, because ew. And it did not matter, but suddenly with the capability to force CSAM-detection on the world, we would think it now starts to matter, but no, people in general never heard about this, have no idea about this, and so on.)
So with that long intro, it turns out that if enough people want Fortnite on their iThing, or want to repair their tractor or car ... that can force some principles, and that's when people will suddenly care about "my device my blablabla".
Re: Browsers are essential and how operating systems are holding them back (2022) [pdf] (2022)
#146Earlier quoted context omitted.
Excuse me, your conclusion doesn't seem to follow from your premises. I mean, "Please OS vendor I want something simple. That hidden `sideload` option is complicated, please lock down my machine." Like, seriously? No one's that stupid. Sure most people want a decent, clear default option, but no one want that to be the only option. At least not for themselves. Because for some reason I see many people arguing that ot…
>"Please OS vendor I want something simple. That hidden `sideload` option is complicated, please lock down my machine." I could easily turn that characterization around. "Please OS vendor, I want something that just works, please don't add customization options that I will never use but if I accidentally select will effectively brick my machine for the technical skill level I have." I might be dating myself here but…
You have chosen one property of the iPhone and elevated it to the primary reason why people buy that device, which is entirely disingenuous as clearly people are forced to make tradeoffs in their purchases and nearly 100% of people might despise having locked down devices and yet still buy an iPhone if other things are more important to them... and there are definitely a ton of things the iPhone gets right--both in its hardware and its software--despite* this one glaring thing it gets wrong.
Almost everyone I know owns an iPhone... and yet, almost all of them wanted a more open device and bought an iPhone anyway because it has a longer serviceable lifetime (due to software updates for a longer period of time), has a pervasive brick and mortar storefront that sells accessories, lets them use AirPods, has one of the best cameras on a mobile phone (and here it is maybe-interesting to note that Samsung devices are also pretty damned well locked down: you sideload a browser, sure, but you can't get filesystem access or modify any of its stock behaviors)... I could keep going, as Apple is actually an extremely competent company that has built a great product!
And yet, those people, when given the chance, were all very excited to jailbreak their phones to get more features. The people who are not technical has their technical friends do it for them. The people who did not have technical friends who wanted to deal with that much effort bring their phones to the little shops which do it for you. At its peak, despite being pretty hard to do, difficult to maintain, and complicated to take advantage of, we had more than 10% of people with an iPhone jailbreaking! That is an insane number of people to just write off :/.
Re: Browsers are essential and how operating systems are holding them back (2022) [pdf] (2022)
#147Earlier quoted context omitted.
And how would you define "commercial operating system"? Is Android one or is it "Linux"?
No; and No. Anything that is not licensed as "Free Software" or "Open-Source software" is "Commercial Operating System".
Commercial has to make money somehow, directly or indirectly. Plenty of software has been released gratis over the years under proprietary licenses.
Re: Browsers are essential and how operating systems are holding them back (2022) [pdf] (2022)
#148i think mobile users are unaware how good firefox+ublock origin is. i constantly get bombarded by disgusting adds while browsing news portals, cooking recipes, etc. imagine reading about some great cooking ideas and midway through you see an advertisement for "revolutionary medication for foot fungus" with before and after pictures to show. and yes this happens even in "private" tabs. if anything mozilla should give…
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Re: Browsers are essential and how operating systems are holding them back (2022) [pdf] (2022)
#149i think mobile users are unaware how good firefox+ublock origin is. i constantly get bombarded by disgusting adds while browsing news portals, cooking recipes, etc. imagine reading about some great cooking ideas and midway through you see an advertisement for "revolutionary medication for foot fungus" with before and after pictures to show. and yes this happens even in "private" tabs. if anything mozilla should give…
Uh? All browsers besides chrome come with ad blocking capabilities, some of them built-in. I use safari with adguard on my iphone and I don't see ads ever either.
I do a lot of web browsing on my iphone and if I couldn't block ads I wouldn't have bought one.
Re: Browsers are essential and how operating systems are holding them back (2022) [pdf] (2022)
#150Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Like, seriously? No one's that stupid. I just want to ask you something. I'm a software developer, able to build out of parts and configure a headless Linux box, unlock the bootloader on, flash and root an Android phone and use both successfully, and "Please OS vendor I want something simple, ... , please lock down my machine" is literally THE reason why I got an expensive iPhone as my last phone instead of a cheap…
If you have two otherwise-equal choices, but one has great default settings, but allows you to change things if you really really want, and the other has the same great defaults, but is locked down and doesn't allow you any choice, then if you pick the locked-down choice, I think you're frankly quite stupid. What I think is really stupid is how many people seem to think that having the ability to change things means…
Not really, the choice will then becomes use chrome and deal with their JIT draining your phone/privacy invasive ads or you cant use this feature from google docs/slides/youtube being slow… etc