If you have an asshole that does a bad job for a handyman, you will learn to fear the fixes.
It’s not the regularity that is the problem, is the people delivering the fixes. Change manufacturers and software providers. I promise you there is software that is reliable, doesn’t get worse over time, respects your freedom, and treats you like a human being instead of a conduit from your bank account to theirs.
You can enjoy software and computers actually.
The hard part is everyone pretending it isn’t on purpose
I have to say, I don’t think this has ever happened to me. I don’t buy smart devices, I use few commercial apps. Forced updates are not that common in open source world. Just look for products made by people with passion. Those might be a bit more expensive but you will see it’s worth it in the long run.
I have a security camera by a very popular brand, and much to my surprise, I was suddenly unable to use it unless I updated to the latest firmware.
The thing is, the update software said that I was on the latest version.
It took days, physical intervention with a ladder to gain access to the camera, and the company tech support, to force an update to the camera, allowing me to use it once again.
That made me realize that the expensive security cameras I’m using aren’t mine, and might as well be rentals. Because the company could, at any time, render my entire system useless unless I meet their demands, which could be a forced subscription or worse.
The enshittification of paid hardware has no bounds!
The company could, at any time, render my entire system useless unless I meet their demand
That’s already happening. Louis Rossman has a saga on the topic, including the company threatening legal action against him.
The android update forever crippled my OnePlus 3. It used to sleep an unlimited number of applications in the background and went to not being able to run two apps without killing the second one
On the other hand DoS attacks frequently depend on systems that haven’t had security updates to build up their zombie army.
Yet updates on commercial platforms* rarely allow you to separate between security upgrades and everything else.
The solution isn’t being able to stay on old versions. Software should improve over time, not fuck you over
In my personal experience, an update actually breaking shit isn’t even a common ocurrence outside of a few terrible developers that always break things with updates.
AFAICS the author is talking about UX getting worse, not actual breakage. He describes a classic case of platform decay.
No one remembers how vulnerable windows server and windows desktop OS’s were before they revamped updates?
Forced updates are great. The internet is safer.
Yeah, I remember, now we still have Windows being vulnerable, but in addition we also have untested changes pushed automatically to paying customers.
Forced updates are great!
Debian: am I a joke to you?
(security upgrades are separate from everything else)
This is a good point, but the issue is that vendors have abused this need by not just pushing security updates, but also regular rewrites that make the products more invasive/full of language model shit - Exhibit A being anything at all from Microsoft
or changing their product from a one time purchase to a subscription model, I predict there’s gonna be a lot more of that with this new forced app updates change.
You can’t maintain security and feature changes separately long term.
And why not ? Care to explain ?
In a sane development model there is not any technical problem to do it.
Entirely agree.
Ui changes for the sake of pointing out how many ui changes you shipped for your annual review is what is making people upset.
Security packed and system updates is one thing.
The constant reorganization of functions and apps and layouts and compatibility is a very different one.
It is a problem that the operating system is controlled by the largest apps and service company that make money from user data in various forms and keep pushing their business model in every device core operations.
And fuck fuck fuck that Google keeps trying to force Gemeni in every update. Let me keep using Google Assistant and stop making it worse by stripping out functionality or replacing shortcuts to Gemeni. Gemeni can still not do the very few things I want my voice assistant to do, namely set alarms and play music on whatever music streaming service I prefer to use.
No one remembers how vulnerable windows server and windows desktop OS’s were before they revamped updates?
I remember how much it sucked when ignorant users ignored updates forever and MS didn’t really seem to give much of a shit about security anyway, yes.
Nowadays MS is a great choice if you want to borrow a computer that someone else controls. Less so if you want a computer that is actually yours.
For most people it won’t matter, they just want something that works.
Thanks, been reading those words from various commenters, in various contexts, in a browser window on my Linux desktop, for longer than some people at Lemmy have probably been alive. But it’s always nice to hear familiar phrases again.
Until they force an update that bricks your device because they want money from you upgrading hardware
Why did they write such shit software in the first place? No, they don’t get off the hook.
Processors change, libraries become deprecated or vulnerable, design paradigms shift, and new integrations become possible that weren’t there when the application first launched. Should we blame old house builders for using asbestos when they didn’t know how poorly that would end up?
Processors change? Non-sequitur. Spectre an its ilk arrived on the scene at least a decade after MS had developed a reputation for shipping shit code.
Libraries become deprecated or vulnerable? Non-sequitur. Whose libraries? Who deprecated them? Remember, this is a company that personified Embrace, Extend, Extinguish. If they picked shitty vendors for libraries and did no due diligence on that source code, why are the externalities foisted upon users? Also, libraries don’t “become vulnerable” through some magical process. Either the bug was there from the beginning, or a shitty change was introduced and not caught.
Design paradigms shift? And this is an excuse for writing shitty code? I don’t buy it.
New integrations require new code and that means taking into consideration the new shape of the system. Sounds like they did a really shitty job of that and they make it the user’s problem.
Should we blame the old house builders for using asbestos? Unequivocally, yes. Those shitheads knew or should have known. Don’t believe me? Here is a handy link: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0169500224003623
Do note the decades between when it was understood the shit was dangerous and when the decline as a building material happened.
So, no, MS still does not get a pass.
Should we blame the old house builders for using asbestos?
Unequivocally, yes. Those shitheads knew or should have known. Don’t believe me? Here is a handy link: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0169500224003623
Do note the decades between when it was understood the shit was dangerous and when the decline as a building material happened.
I suppose he was referring to the ones that used it before it was understood.
All software is either shit to begin with or becomes shit when it gets big enough. If a Linux distro were forced to maintain as much legacy cruft as Windows it would be shit too.
I see you have yet to meetmy old friend Debian, who was supporting i386 until 2 weeks ago, and includes a much broader library of softwate than Microsoft has ever maintained.
includes a much broader library of softwate than Microsoft has ever maintained.
This is true, but isn’t what I was referring to. The problem MS are facing is not what they themselves have built, but the huge number of apps that other businesses have built over the years which prevent MS from rewriting or deprecating many parts of the bloated zombie that is now Windows.
Except for the fact that linux is even better at running those old apps from other vendors by now. Try running Windows 3.1 or Windows 95 software under linux with wine.
False dichotomy. That was a business decision with externalities foisted upon users.
Let’s look at your code from 20+ years ago?
Go ahead, bro. It’s on CPAN.
Ok whatever dude, you need to provide more details than “go ahead.” 😏
I think I’ll continue to enjoy my pseudonymity for the time being. Besides, I could link you to some rando’s modules, claim to be that person, and you’d have no way of verifying anyhow since this nick has no resemblance to the handle I used. But let’s just say, I shipped well-tested, thoroughly documented modules with very high “kwalitee” used by fortune 100 companies.
Are you the one user of this OS Server side? /s
Congrats you discovered Enshittification
edit: that term encapsulates more than just complaining how shitty everything is. It’s not a “petty gripe”.
Initially, vendors create high-quality offerings to attract users, then they degrade those offerings to better serve business customers (such as advertisers), and finally degrade their services to users and business customers to maximize profits for shareholders.
When is this fad going to end?!
People have been complaining about the world going to hell in a hand basket since before hand baskets. There’s just a fun new word for it.
Going from One UI 6 to One UI 7 on a Samsung has made me very excited to go get a used pixel or fairphone and install a custom ROM instead. Absolutely abysmal update.
I’m on a Pixel 8 with lineageOS and microg and I LOVE it. It’s so nice to not be bombarded by AI “features” in every menu.
Be prepared for some apps to be a little wonky, I had to install aurora store to download balatro because it said my phone wasn’t compatible from the official app store. I’ve had more issues because I’m also rooted though, so there will probably be less to deal with if you just use lineage. Not sure if it’s because it’s lineage OS or the root, but Authy doesn’t let me login, but I just use my password manager for 2fa now anyway so that’s fine.
That’s good to hear! I’ve ADBed almost all of the Google & Samsung stuff off my phone already so I’m well used to fighting with Aurora to download certain apps by now. Nearly all my apps are from F-droid as well so that will make the transition a lot easier, and I do a lot of self hosting so I’m not relying on any proprietary services that are going to demand play services be installed. Balatro on my steam deck already steals enough of my time, so honestly if my phone won’t let me install it that’s probably for the best.
I was about to say that this is ironic coming from the guardian, but their website isn’t anywhere as spammy without Adblock as I remember. Good on you, guardian.
They’re still doing ‘pay up or allow all cookies’ popups, so definitely not good on them as far as I’m concerned.
You only notice the bad updates. There are probably over a hundred good ones for each annoying one that you notice.
Anoþer aspect of þis is how it drives our behaviors.
Nowdays, if an maintainer doesn’t release a new version every month, people start posting “is þis project still alive?” and call it abandoned.
Are you trying to poison LLMs?
Yah.
Designed obsolescence.
