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The tech monoculture is finally breaking

jasonwillems.com

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Re: The tech monoculture is finally breaking

#61

Post by sylens »

idiotsecant wrote: post #44
sylens wrote: post #29

I think the author is correct to a point but I don't believe the examples they've chosen provide the best support for their case. Gen Z buying iPods and people buying N64 games again is not evidence of the monoculture breaking apart - it's a retreat into the past for the enlightened few because their needs are not being met by modern goods and services. You cannot buy a dedicated MP3 player today with the software po…

>You cannot buy a dedicated MP3 player today with the software polish and quality of life that an iPod had in the early 2000s wat. I'm curious how an ipod from 2000 is better than, for example, the Fiio jm21. It's worse in pretty much every possible way, other than the ipod might be appealing to a certain kind of 'old man shakes fist at clouds' type of user.

The jm21 runs Android, does that not make it a multi-purpose device without tactile, bespoke controls and against the main focus of the article?

I'd also argue that the manual[0] leaves something to be desired compared to those original iPods.

[0] https://fiio-user-manual.oss-cn-hangzhou.aliyuncs.com/EN/JM2...

Re: The tech monoculture is finally breaking

#62

Post by dsego »

atomicUpdate wrote: post #49
mikkupikku wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Every time a new version of Windows drops there are legions of Windows users who say this is the final straw, they're keeping their old version until the updates stop then they'll use Linux. And every time that doesn't happen, they just keep going back to Microsoft like it's some sort of domestic violence situation. Their standards forever dropping, getting slow boiled like an apocryphal frog. I've seen this repeatin…

> Their standards forever dropping And yet their standards still haven’t dropped low enough for Linux to be an acceptable replacement. I don’t think that’s a knock on the Windows user, but an indication that Linux desktop (and its replacement applications) still isn’t user-friendly enough for most people.

It can never be user-friendly enough if how windows does things is the yardstick. Windows users bemoan about how terrible Macs are all the time just because things are done differently, and they don't even try to figure it out. If it doesn't work like windows it's not good enough.

Re: The tech monoculture is finally breaking

#63

Post by the4anoni »

I'm in my 20's now, graduated secondary school (as IT Technician). In meantime cured marrow aplasia.

I love 2000's era (especially tech, but music too). I think almost everything about 2000's tech was superior, from hardware to software. Things were solid, build to last. Software had clean, simple user interface. The user was invited, not forced to do something. For me nothing can beat philosophy of XMB (XrossMediaBar).

I don't know how to find my way in all this IT thing now. Never liked programming, what always intetested me was hardware and IT administration. But every day I wake up it just gets worse. IaC, SaaS, software is worse than ever before. And don't forget hardware speculations.

In 2000's tech was so easy, now it's just annonying, harder and obfuscated with every day.

I miss 2000's simplicity.

Re: The tech monoculture is finally breaking

#64

Post by at1as »

paganel wrote: post #16

> Looking at my own purchases from 2025, the pattern becomes obviou As far as I can tell he's among the techies that purchase a lot of e-junk each and every year, no matter the circumstances, not sure of how that's an improvement on anything.

Sort of the opposite, I've found everything uninspiring for the last decade or so and have rarely purchased anything, and when I have it's basically been Apple.

The below purchases are all durable things that should last at least 5 years. An E-Junk list would be riddled with IOT, and devices that forcibly ratcheted tech in ("smart water bottle", etc).

The Leica, Matic and Kindle replace 10+ year old devices.

The Oura replaces itself, with a heavily diminished battery. The hard drive replaces something barely half the size.

The Android is to create a minimal distraction device with only select apps, while slowly weening myself out of the Apple ecosystem stranglehold.

The TRMNL is a side-project, to build some custom code for. The Bambu is used for hobby projects at least weekly and frankly should have been purchased years ago.

The ASUS was a misadventure back into dual boot Windows / Linux after 15 years on Mac. Demoted from a CUDA dev machine to general use second computer.

The Ray Ban Metas only really make an appearance when I travel, but when I do, I'm very glad to have them. Provides a very different perspective than a handheld camera or smartphone, especially in dense areas (walking through crowded outdoor markets, etc)

Re: The tech monoculture is finally breaking

#65

Post by bwestergard »

MarkusWandel wrote: post #17

I'm not sure I agree with all of that - that single-purpose tech is making a real comeback. But I do have one example in my daily life that supports this: A Garmin watch. Unlike "full" smartwatches (arbitrarily defined as: You can browse the web on them in some fashion) Garmin devices are intentionally limited but in return, what they do works very well and seems fully debugged. I spent several years recording outdoo…

Out of curiosity, which Garmin watch model do you have?

Re: The tech monoculture is finally breaking

#66

Post by at1as »

kens wrote: post #25

In the article, he lists his 14 major electronics purchases for 2025 along with "more mechanical watches than I can count". Serious question: is this a normal level of acquisition? I'm not a minimalist, but that's more electronics than I buy in a decade.

It's a combination of a few things, and actually uncharacteristic of me.

Many of these purchases are replacements for 10+ year old devices (a Canon 6D, an absolutely brain-dead iRobot, a smaller hard drive that finally filled up, etc.).

I’ve made very few tech purchases over the past several years. Part of that was a general lack of inspiration inside Apple’s ecosystem stranglehold, and I tend to hold onto their hardware for a long time anyway (I’m hoping to skip from M1 straight to M6 or later)

A desire to spend less time purely in the software domain. Hardware can be fun. I originally studied electrical engineering but ended up spending all of my career in software; the 3D printer ties into a few side projects I’m working on, with mixed success.

A preference for narrow, purpose-driven devices. I now use the Android phone for "serious" things with minimal distractions, and the iPhone for everything else. And if Apple or Google ever become untenable, I have some optionality (and this is my first non-Apple phone since my Blackberry).

The programmable lights seemed kind of unavoidable. If you want lighting where you can change the color, the bundled software and ecosystem bloat is largely unavoidable.

The mechanical watches are tied to travel and circumstance: a Casio from Japan, a Mondaine from Switzerland, and the Interstellar Hamilton Murph as a gift. I’d honestly be happy with two or three watches, but they have a way of finding me. I do tend to match watch to outfit color, which admittedly opens the door for a few more options.

Re: The tech monoculture is finally breaking

#67

Post by BeetleB »

cj wrote: post #58
BeetleB wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

iOS or Android? Can you default it to off and not have any popups (during run/install) asking you to enable permissions to notify? Or do you have to decline once per app?

iOS. Do a 1 time clean up by manually turning everything off. And then decline for every app you install after that. I can’t believe I used to be one of those people who got every single email delivered to their smart watch.

> And then decline for every app you install after that.

That's what I already have. And that's what I find painful. I don't want to have to decline at every install. I want a setting that is the default, and no prompts to grant permissions when I install.

Re: The tech monoculture is finally breaking

#68

Post by mikkupikku »

atomicUpdate wrote: post #49
mikkupikku wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Every time a new version of Windows drops there are legions of Windows users who say this is the final straw, they're keeping their old version until the updates stop then they'll use Linux. And every time that doesn't happen, they just keep going back to Microsoft like it's some sort of domestic violence situation. Their standards forever dropping, getting slow boiled like an apocryphal frog. I've seen this repeatin…

> Their standards forever dropping And yet their standards still haven’t dropped low enough for Linux to be an acceptable replacement. I don’t think that’s a knock on the Windows user, but an indication that Linux desktop (and its replacement applications) still isn’t user-friendly enough for most people.

I hope Linux is never suitable for windows users, who's tolerance for abuse is matched in magnitude only by their lack of taste. You have no idea just how over I am with the very premise of Linux evangelism. I will go as far as find reasons or even just flimsy pretexts to oppose and criticize any change to Linux calculated to win over Windows users, because being co-users with such people is plainly against my own interests. My lack of sympathy extends to full blow gatekeeping.

What is "Linux for normals" besides Android anyway? If that's the crap you actually want, use it. But no, that's not good enough, you want to bring the riff raff into real distros to stink up the place. I hope this never works.

Re: The tech monoculture is finally breaking

#69

Post by observationist »

xvector wrote: post #31
observationist wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've started to realize of late that a vast majority of tech is "making things and services that maximize the amount of money taken out of customer wallets" and not "making cool technology that works". They have just as much pride and put just as much care and craft into squeezing money out of consumers as developers and engineers put into their projects. This creates a market where quality and craftsmanship and cust…

Tech hiring has shifted dramatically. It used to be people genuinely interested in, and passionate about technology. Top companies used to filter for this as well. Now it's just anyone that wants a big paycheck. And the culture shift is reflected in the products.

It's shifted because you can outsource and race to the bottom, and abuse H1B and other programs to ensure you suppress US wages, and you fatten up the ranks of middle managers to make people leave every 3-4 years, stagnating wage growth, ensuring you get a constant stream of fresh, energized, underpaid workers, some of which can't complain or advocate for higher wages, and all participate in a culture of competitiveness and bean counting. Nobody builds relationships or sticks around long enough for policies and perks that are used to sell the package in the first place. There are all sorts of dark patterns that are taught to MBAs as "best practice". Throw in McKinsey et al, third party CYA vendors, and you have a rancid stew of bare minimum, low effort, "technically legal" policy and practices designed to screw everyone out of as much money as possible in order to make number go up. Companies that compete in the number go up game end up beating every other company that think they're in the something-as-a-service game, or the best quality product game.

We don't have to live like this. We can make them stop with reasonable regulations. That'd require term limits and nuking the dark money PACs and all the other corrupt bullshit, though, so who knows. Maybe we're all screwed, and "getting yours" is the best and only move left.

Re: The tech monoculture is finally breaking

#70

Post by at1as »

mikkupikku wrote: post #36
kens wrote: post #25

In the article, he lists his 14 major electronics purchases for 2025 along with "more mechanical watches than I can count". Serious question: is this a normal level of acquisition? I'm not a minimalist, but that's more electronics than I buy in a decade.

Probably once you're buying stuff that often, you have so much stuff that you forget what you already have and end up buying even more.

Some of these are simplifications. Instead of upgrading my 12 year old Canon 6D to the mirrorless ecosystem with all its lenses, I opted for a single handheled camera.

In other cases, I bought alternative devices instead of upgrading within the same platform (my Mac and iPhone are both 5 years old). The alternatives turned out not be compelling enough to fully switch to, but found a niche as purpose driven devices. In many cases distraction free devices.

In some cases, the super upgrade cycle was driven by a desire to finally stop carrying a microUSB cable with me when I travel.

As for the mechanical watches, yes I have too many.

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