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If coding has been solved, why does software keep getting worse?

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Re: If coding has been solved, why does software keep getting worse?

#311

Post by NamlchakKhandro »

ToucanLoucan wrote: post #155
ndriscoll wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah the obvious answer to software getting worse is to switch to FOSS. Use Linux/KDE. It's been great for a long time and only ever gets better. It's as if Windows 7 just continued to slowly iterate and add useful polish. NixOS has a longstanding issue where library loading (and therefore program start, particularly GUI programs that load a lot) is n^2, but programs still all start in ~1 second or less on my n100 mi…

I actually had to backpedal on my gaming PC from Kubuntu recently, I'm sad to say. The support for the RTX 5080 is just too rough. Every game install was chased by an hour of debugging with Claude to figure out which version of proton to use, which launch arguments to use, which between-system-and-gpu shim profile to use. I grant: The process is much more enjoyable than doing similar things on Windows. Kubuntu treats…

Heretic.

Re: If coding has been solved, why does software keep getting worse?

#312

Post by altruios »

zem wrote: post #308
hamandcheese wrote: post #296

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> > We’ve reached a point where an update to macOS — or to any app I rely on, really — is a source of dread rather than excitement. I now expect the new version to be worse. You know what software doesn't fill me with dread to update? FOSS. Proprietary software isn't built for users anymore. But (some) FOSS still is.

> You know what software doesn't fill me with dread to update? FOSS. speak for your clearly non-pulseaudio-using self (:

pulse audio's pain points were in setup for me, and in setup alone. using it has been a breeze.

Re: If coding has been solved, why does software keep getting worse?

#314

Post by lelanthran »

gyomu wrote: post #291

You can build software fast, but the more time you take the more you can be confident about it being correct. This was true already before AI code generation, but AI code generation means the definition of “fast” has shifted like crazy. An experienced engineer can now build in an hour what would have taken them a week. But it (right now) does nothing for the confidence about being correct - you still have to put in t…

> You can build software fast, but the more time you take the more you can be confident about it being correct.

> ...

> But it (right now) does nothing for the confidence about being correct - you still have to put in the extra time to ensure the software is correct to your desired degree of confidence.

You're partially correct - what gives confidence is duration in the field. No matter how long you take to build something, seeing it work in the field for 3 months gives me more confidence.

You have to release, early and often.

Re: If coding has been solved, why does software keep getting worse?

#315

Post by chrisjj »

aleph_minus_one wrote: post #264

> If coding has been solved, why does software keep getting worse? Because the premise that coding has been solved is false. :-)

> the premise that coding has been solved is false. :-)

Not a problem.

But the belief that coding has been solved...

Re: If coding has been solved, why does software keep getting worse?

#316

Post by lbrito »

>Nothing Works and Everyone Is Euphoric

Euphoric, who?

Other than techbros and a small group of AI-delirious fanboys, no one is euphoric. Normal people in the industry are between anxious, scared, exhausted, resentful, resigned or just plain sad. People outside our industry? They see the enshittification clearly, and are most certainly the opposite of euphoric.

Re: If coding has been solved, why does software keep getting worse?

#317

Post by thewebguyd »

robotnikman wrote: post #245
pjmlp wrote: post #226

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem is that I can't still buy a laptop at Media Markt, or similar consumer store, with a Linux distro pre-installed, and if I could, it would be OEM Linux, just like they do with Android, WebOS, Netbooks, whatever. Outside Internet places like HN, most consumers aren't going to Tuxedo, System 76, or building their own Linux PC. Thus commercial OS platforms keep winning, and the owners are anyway the ones that…

Window 7 was the apex of Windows as an OS. Its been downhill since then.

Windows 8.1 was pretty solid, if short lived. New task manager, overhauled file copy, better SSD support & HiDPI scaling/multi-monitor support was hugely improved over 7, 8.1 also improved the window snapping and fixed the horrible table UI for it from 8.0

8.1 also ran faster than 7 on a lot of machines, they did a lot of work to optimize it for the crappy tablets which translated well to desktop.

Also the last version of Windows that you could opt-out of telemetry with (until Microsoft backported 10's telemetry engine to 7 and 8.1 via optional update)

Re: If coding has been solved, why does software keep getting worse?

#318

Post by murderfs »

zem wrote: post #308
hamandcheese wrote: post #296

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> > We’ve reached a point where an update to macOS — or to any app I rely on, really — is a source of dread rather than excitement. I now expect the new version to be worse. You know what software doesn't fill me with dread to update? FOSS. Proprietary software isn't built for users anymore. But (some) FOSS still is.

> You know what software doesn't fill me with dread to update? FOSS. speak for your clearly non-pulseaudio-using self (:

And also clearly not a GNOME user...

Re: If coding has been solved, why does software keep getting worse?

#319

Post by Decabytes »

Software quality is tied to the market incentives and always has been. AI isn’t going to make someone care about writing robust software and that is why we don’t see better software all of a sudden. The market doesn’t rewards apps that don’t break on every update, it doesn’t reward cobbling together multiple independent solutions, as opposed to using Microsoft as a one stop shop. If people could have gotten away with this in the early days of computing they would have, but computers were too low powered, and the knowledge too scarce.

There is a saying

Any idiot can build a bridge that stands, but it takes an engineer to build a bridge that barely stands

We found the limits of what it takes to make software stand, and what software paper cuts people are willing to deal with

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