Hackers and scammers get more advanced. Vulnerabilities are discovered with time.
Users expect more security today than 10 years ago.
For Google & device manufacturers to be able to guarantee that level of security, they need to keep their store updated. And the apps on there shouldn't be using outdated insecure APIs.
If you're not able to keep up with that, then you shouldn't have any expectation of getting new downloads on their platform.
There are a lot of websites that don't scale well with small screens.
Just the simple trick of zooming in on a website with a "2 finger pinch/pull" is something a big part of the population doesn't even know how to do. I know my mom would probably just give up.
Buttons on many websites are way too small for some people to use.
Those are never an issue on native apps. The UI on apps scale with the size of a phone's screen. No matter if you have the smallest iPhone or the largest Android.
This alone is enough for many people to not use the web browser unless absolutely necessary.
You do understand that not every developer is backed by billions of dollars of venture capital, right?
That there are people who have to target multiple operating systems, and don't have 100+ people working on their team, right?
I mean...it doesn't take a genius to figure out that there's a benefit to being able to write code once and deploy to ALL users/customers without having to dedicate entire teams of developers with expertise in various platforms.
I'm an Android developer with 10+ years of experience. I take pride in my native apps that I code for the company I work for. They are far superior to any web app or "multiplatform framework solution".
But if I had to create my own personal app, there's no way in hell I'd spend years learning everything it would take to create a native iOS, Windows, Linux, MacOS version.
I'd be an absolute idiot if I didn't just choose a solution, like a web app, or framework that was able to output for more systems, etc.
If you seriously think analytics makes for a worse user experience, then you're speaking out of ignorance.
Analytics tell developers exactly where bugs and crashes occur.
And on which devices or versions of the OS the problem is.
Without analytics it would take weeks/months to figure out exactly what line of code is causing the issue. Heck, the developers might NEVER KNOW that the software has an issue.
Apps would just keep crashing on users for years. And developers would have no idea why users were abandoning their product.
Nobody that has any idea what they're talking about would say that analytics makes for a worse user experience.
It exists because some people barely have enough money to get by.
It exists because there are people who weren't fortunate enough to have parents that taught how to cook.
It can be a challenge to get a varied diet, when you only have spare change and lack the skills & knowledge that many take for granted.
You sound like you lack some ability to empathize with other people's struggles in life - and that you are blind to the privileges you've had in your own life.
Not everyone has access to the same resources & knowledge that you have.
I know how to cook, but have been dirt-poor in periods of my life. A book like this one (with 50 recipes that cost less than $10) helped me get through those times without having to eat the same 2-3 dishes for months.
When developing software, a company might aquire a license to add some library or code to their product.
This happens all the time with OS's like Windows (licensing the ability to play media formats, etc.) or games (licensing certain engines or algorithms).
That doesn't mean the company squired a license to release the libraries or code as open source 20 years later.
So you'd have to go through the codebase with a fine-toothed comb, line-by-line, because the original developers don't work for you anymore, and the license agreements are long lost.
Releasing large software projects are a massive cost to any company that wants to be protected from potential lawsuits.
>I think Musk has long since been proven correct that the core platform could function on a fraction of the workforce it had at the time of takeover.
It REALLY sounds like you don't understand how any of this works.
Tech products don't stop working when you fire most of the staff.
But bugs stop being fixed and problems begin to add up, until a critical point is reached,m where the whole house of cards collapses.
Thinking that "Elon was proven right" simply because Twitter didn't implode the second he announced the layoffs, makes me think you don't understand how tech and software works.
Republicans haven't really cared about paying off the debts since before Regan. (Except for when they're not in power).
So it wasn't actually the norm when Clinton tried to make a dent in the foreign debts of the US.
Modern economic theory says that there's a big difference between normal household finances and national economics.
Countries don't reach retirement age, they get new taxpayers every year. (Either through births or immigration).
So there's essentially no limit to how many times they can roll the debts over via issuing new state-backed bonds, except for how the market views the country's future prospects.
>...the school of economics that says money is magical and debt never has to be paid back
Well...debt generally has to be paid back, but unlike people countries don't get old and retire.
Countries have an unending supply of new taxpayers being born every year.
There's no hard limit to how much a country can renew and restructure its debts.
Only the market's belief in a country's future economic prospects affect the price of rolling the debts forward, through the issuing of new state-backed bonds.
They barely even know the difference between Windows and Google.
People who got online when smartphones entered the scene have a difficult time when I try to explain what "folders" and "files" are.
I do a lot of tech support for family and friends.
They NEVER enter settings or preferences for their OS or their browser.
They're afraid they'll "break something".
The disconnect between tech literate people like you, and what they think most users want - or even care about - is mind blowing.
Does anyone here remember the headache you'd get, when helping a family member, and you saw how many toolbars and viruses they'd managed to install, since you last checked their PC two months ago???
The lockdown is a feature - not a bug - in most user's minds.
And I has made my life so much easier.
I use Linux and side load apps.
But I'm so, so, happy that none of my family members are even able to do the same.
> If really everyone would participate, I would give it a try. Would disrupt a lot, but might end up with a honest society.
Do you really want your health insurance company to know that you parked outside a doctor's office, who specializes in skin cancers? You just went for a check-up, but they might want to increase your payments or even cancel your coverage entirely.
Then good luck finding another insurance provider, since they all have that information now.
Or how about all future potential employers knowing that you once visited a union office?
There are so many cases, where people "who have nothing to hide" can't imagine where this could bite them in the future.
You (or your wife/daughter/girlfriend/secretary, etc.) visit a Planned Parenthood? Everyone - including your pastor - now has that info.
You go to a job interview at a competitor? Your boss now knows that.
We have no idea who or what groups who might want to snoop in where we park our cars.
The possibilities for abuse are endless. And as always, we have no way of predicting what use-cases unethical individuals will come up with as these things roll out.