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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?

#711

Post by kimjune01 »

20k wrote: post #708
kimjune01 wrote: post #673

Earlier quoted context omitted.

for small to medium sized bugs I managed to get a bit more than half of my PRs to get merged. ~90 PRs since May https://june.kim/speedrunning-open-source Verify yourself: { merged: search(query: "is:pr is:merged author:kimjune01 created:>2026-05-09T00:34:00Z", type: ISSUE) { issueCount } closed: search(query: "is:pr is:closed is:unmerged author:kimjune01 created:>2026-05-09T00:34:00Z", type: ISSUE) { issueCount } all…

Man, truly absolutely gross to see this, this is some incredibly unethical engineering here. This is literally why people hate AI slop. Its not surprising to me that you didn't want to even write the post yourself >It cost me 53 merges, 63 closures, a billion Opus tokens, and eight account blocks I can't believe people think this is acceptable. You didn't fix any problems, you just managed to deliberately sneak slop…

the issues were already validated by the maintainers, and the maintainers merged it into their repo voluntarily. When maintainers accepted the PRs, they were the ones who found it acceptable. I found that well-tested PRs are more likely to get merged, so I deliberately had it pick bugs that were easy to verify. I didn't need to get involved after I specified that criteria.

Humans don't get a 100% merge rate either, so it's a matter of degree to which stranger is more effective at contributing to open source. It was an experiment where I accumulated lessons about how OSS works, and the lessons are open and available for your viewing here: https://github.com/kimjune01/sweep/blob/main/HYPOTHESIS_GRAP...

AI is good at fixing a narrow subset of issues/tasks in GitHub, so humans still need to be involved in most tasks.

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

#712

Post by Balooga »

therealdrag0 wrote: post #502
alphazard wrote: post #388

The answer, of course, is that the taste-making apparatus inside the typical tech company is now entirely imposters (non-technical, non-power-users), who continue to LARP as visionaries. The people who notice broken or degraded behavior (devs and power users) and conceive of good designs are not in charge of what goes into the product. So you shouldn't expect it to get better, only to continuously change so that the…

Why would engineers as a class be better at product than product people as a class?

A reason is different performance metrics. One bonus depends on "make number go up". The other realizes that making "number go up" degrades the experience for the product as a whole.

An example. I worked for many years at a major satellite TV company. The customer support department were spending a lot of time and money handling customer calls due to signal loss because of inclement weather, and they wanted something done about it.

Department X pushed for removing the 1-800 support number from the on-screen-display, because of the "quick win". No visible phone number means some customers would just give up. Who cares that this would frustrate customers even more.

Department Y pushed for reworking the UX flows around helping the user troubleshoot the problem, point them to their DVR recordings or alternative shows on broadband if connected, and automatically rebook the interrupted shows.

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

#713

Post by leni536 »

Chu4eeno wrote: post #676
leni536 wrote: post #533

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Use pipewire and its pulseaudio facade.

Last I tried that (because everyone claimed it was magically better at everything) sound just randomly broke (I had no idea why, debugging pipewire is a nightmare), and since I switched back to pulseaudio everything just works again (and seems to use less CPU, but that could be selective memory). Maybe I'm just old and grumpy, but we spent decades hammering out all the incorrect (for pulseaudio) assumptions in every…

I have the opposite experience, in particular with bluetooth audio. YMMV

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

#714

Post by gt0 »

I think there has probably always been gaps between what marketing wants to sell, what management wants to prioritise, what programmers want to make, what customers say they want, and what customers actually want.

Those gaps are getting bigger all over the place, technical users generally just want all the bullshit to go away and just have a reliable and simple system, but no mainstream software companies want to sell it.

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

#715

Post by Hugsbox »

TiredOfLife wrote: post #534
prmoustache wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I heard about it but since I also heard it was built by a white supremacist, I'd rather use one that is made by decent people, especially when the added value is only a preconfigured hyprland desktop. So good marketing? Hell no.

> I heard about it but since I also heard it was built by a white supremacist As much as i don't like DHH and think many of his takes are quite stupid. A white supremacist he is not.

If it walks like a duck...

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

#716

Post by e40 »

mancerayder wrote: post #277

> 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. I actually relate to that. It used to be cool and exciting to update to see what new things are coming for free. I was just looking up what Fedora Workstation 45 might bring. Updates on phones, TV's, cars and non-Linux operating systems on PC's/lap…

When I updated my Homepods to 26.5.2 I wasted 4 hours trying to get them back online. It was a complete nightmare. I never really figured out why it was so hard. I just kept getting errors and if I didn't keep trying they would have been as good as bricks.

So, I 100% agree with you.

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

#717

Post by zx8080 »

manquer wrote: post #540
zx8080 wrote: post #420

Earlier quoted context omitted.

MacOS is the worst. I got to reconnect my bose bluetooth headset 3-4 times every time I have a zoom call because no sound. On contrast, my linux laptop does not have any issue with the same headset and it gets connected instantly.

Perhaps the parent poster user AirPods. Those in contrast would seamlessly switch between your iPhone and MacBook . Apple more or less by planned design nowadays work seamlessly with their own products and their support for other devices is patchy .

> patchy

Negligent is a better word. Even opensource linux support for bluetooth is way better for the same devices.

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

#718

Post by amoorthy »

therealdrag0 wrote: post #500
amoorthy wrote: post #390

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mostly agree and would add that product managers should be responsible for the commercial success of their products. That means spending more time deciding what market to be in, how to differentiate, how to price, how to drive adoption. For the most part these are not strengths for devs and power users.

Are they not? Where I work PMs are closely tied to and own business outcomes.

Sorry, didn't see this reply till now. I think a lot of PMs are judged just on shipping software, not necessarily commercial success, or even just production adoption.

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

#719

Post by noisem4ker »

LargoLasskhyfv wrote: post #687
noisem4ker wrote: post #578

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Why can't I just drag a shortcut to the desktop. You can...? I tried dragging from Dolphin, Kickoff and the Task Manager onto my desktop, and in all three cases it worked. Granted, there's a moment of confusion having to choose between copying or linking, as offered by the context menu that pops up, but...

That option existed in Windows, too. Only you needed to press CTRL, shift, or whatever to make it appear, instead of whatever was the default, which I've forgotten, meanwhile.

On Windows, by default, files are moved if dragged between folders on the same volume, and copied if dragged between volumes.

You can force moving by pressing Shift, or copying by pressing Control as a modifier.

You can make a context menu appear giving you an explicit choice by dragging with the right mouse button.

On KDE Plasma, the default is to give you the context menu.

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