My petty gripe: forced software updates just make everything worse
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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!
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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
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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.
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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.
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The hard part is everyone pretending it isn't on purpose
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
Debian: am I a joke to you?
(security upgrades are separate from everything else)
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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!
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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.
I'm sure all those enterprise clients are positively champing at the bit to switch to Linux
Can I have a conversation about computers here without it being about Linux? And I say this as somebody who uses Linux full-time on all their computers. -
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Remember the early 2000s?
Updates would regularly add shitty bloat and break features. Upgrading to the latest version of anything was always a bad move.It's only maybe the last ten years or so that we have expected updates to fix shit and not break it....
