Bonum Certa Men Certa

Free, as in “App”

Article by Tom Grz

Web logo



Summary: "As everyday users, we need to be able to configure our applications, and this process must/needs to be made as easy and understandable as possible."

We had our computers which ran our programs -– and then after some years “programs” became “applications”. Now we have “Apps” which are ubiquitous, on our desktop computers, our tablets, and our phones. And the App is not at all what it seems to be.



"Now we have “Apps” which are ubiquitous, on our desktop computers, our tablets, and our phones. And the App is not at all what it seems to be."Back in the days, programs were very much task-directed. Applications took a bigger bite, providing a working environment within a specific domain. “Apps”, on the other hand, are pretty much all about “minimizing cognitive load”. When in doubt about something, bring-up an app. If you don’t have it already installed, install it. This is the short history of the dumbing-down of software.

We should applaud, and say “job well done” - software is simple now, like it was intended to be all along. You know: “KISS”. Keep it Simple was a rallying design principle, and it made complete sense: if we overwhelm the user with unnecessary difficulty, it'll spoil their day, and may even result in them abandoning the task.

The most commonly used platform for software today is the mobile phone. And the very last thing we want is for the user to leave our app. Almost everyone is familiar with the conventions and patterns of interaction that come with using their phone, and anything that differs from those expectations can create a sense of friction or even anxiety. To keep as close to expectations as possible for the user, the user “experience” is made consistent even across platforms, with familiar screens, icons, fonts, conventions, so that prior experience serves to flatten the learning curve. But the phone platform is severely limited: the small screen can only show a small amount of information, and typing on the screen is slow and fraught with mistakes. What we see then, moving to other platforms, is a strong tendency toward this lowest common denominator. Couple this curbing effect with range of abilities one finds across the vast masses of users from all possible walks of life who use phone apps, and the tendency to over-simplify things becomes strong.

"Keep it Simple was a rallying design principle, and it made complete sense: if we overwhelm the user with unnecessary difficulty, it'll spoil their day, and may even result in them abandoning the task."OK, let’s call it a “democratization of technology”. Except it isn’t. The very basis of the business model behind it is exploitative -- to say the least. Data is collected from the user incessantly, with every on-line action. Aral Balkan calls this business model people farming, and the depth of the practice is even worse than it appears: “People farmers also buy data from data brokers, share data with other people farmers, and even know when you use your credit card in brick and mortar stores.” And they combine all of this information to create profiles of you which are constantly analyzed, updated, and improved.

Strangely, people are not alarmed that there are sets of data being constantly collected and compiled about them. They may not care that they have electronic shadows projected on electronic walls in electronic caves they know nothing of. But they should be very concerned that these are not mere profiles, they are active models – in nature being closer to ghosts. The data sets are combined, collated, analyzed, and extrapolated into predictions. The predictions are used mainly for selling, selling goods, and increasingly for selling ideas and political candidates. “Selling” may not be the best word here - “manipulating behavior” is more precise. Google, Facebook and Microsoft and others - they hold your ghost hostage. These corporations wring predictions and manipulations of your very person out of these ghost images. All of this lies behind “your” app.

"Google, Facebook and Microsoft and others - they hold your ghost hostage. These corporations wring predictions and manipulations of your very person out of these ghost images. All of this lies behind “your” app."“Social networking” applications are the most insidious. As you communicate with friends and associates you inherently provide tremendous amounts of pertinent information: who, what, when and where, all including the contents of the messaging itself. Your very mood can be conveyed by the rhythms of your keystrokes and your word choices (along with the emoticons, of course!). One might not regard more professionally-oriented applications such as LinkedIn or GitHub to be in the same class of application as Facebook and Twitter, but they are in fact essentially the same, dedicated to the same business model.

So what should we be asking for instead? What we see of the app is only a surface, and a very shallow surface at that. As described above, there is a very strong drive to keep the app as simple as possible, yet engage the user in ways that prevent them from leaving – and interrupting the stream of data being collected. What we users must demand are applications with depth. Users must be allowed to configure their applications in such a way as to allow only that information which is needed to pass gets passed. All data streams must be documented, along with configuration instructions. Better yet, the data should never be collected! Users themselves must look for alternatives to the stalls where they are miked and the farms where they are corralled: Gnu Icecat can be a good replacement for Firefox and Chromium, while Diaspora* can be a good alternative to Facebook. These are only examples – much more has to be done in this field to free our data streams from streaming over to people whose interests are not in alignment with ours.

"One might not regard more professionally-oriented applications such as LinkedIn or GitHub to be in the same class of application as Facebook and Twitter, but they are in fact essentially the same, dedicated to the same business model."And how can we be certain that our applications are only doing what they are supposed to do? First-off, all source code must be made available. This is a good first step, but as we have seen with the Google Chromium Web browser and the Mozilla Firefox Web browser this is not nearly enough. The source code must be practically accessible as well as physically accessible. It should be modular, documented, and as simple as possible to understand and easy to modify and recompile. It should be shared software, GPL-compatible, so that others cannot subvert the code but must instead provide the same license.

As everyday users, we need to be able to configure our applications, and this process must/needs to be made as easy and understandable as possible. This probably requires a different kind of interface than we have been led into, and different kinds of instructions. These things will not happen unless we demand it. But demand these changes, these advancements in software we must. The alternative is to submit to being corralled, kept, milked and herded about like cattle.

Recent Techrights' Posts

Wayland is About Less Choice, About Removing Choices, It's Not About Freedom
IBM insists that it cares about "diversity"
Keeping Things Accessible
Gemini Protocol seems to be growing
 
Fedora 44
IBM now does to Fedora what it did to RHEL
Microsoft Already Shaved Off Costs Anywhere It Could. It Was Not Enough.
Office and Windows aren't "selling" (licences) like they used to
Scheduled Maintenance Next Week
Our community is alive and well
BetaNews: We're Publishing LLM Slop About LLM Slop
Beta version of a slopfarm?
3-Month Updates on Our Complaint to the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA)
In short, the complaint remains open, updated, and is advancing
IBM Red States Hat (Project 2025): Our "New Thing" Replaces This "Old Thing"
The new replaces the old. That's how IBM frames it.
Start X
Just because something is old does not mean it is bad
Slopwatch: Linuxsecurity, Google News Slopfarms, and Linux Journal (LJ)
Today we take a quick look at 3 slopfarms
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, June 27, 2025
IRC logs for Friday, June 27, 2025
Links 28/06/2025: "CC Signals" Virtue-Signals to Slop Ponzi Schemes, North Korea Aims for Tourism
Links for the day
Links 27/06/2025: International Tensions and Contentions Over Plagiarism Perfumed as "Hey Hi" and "Fair Use"
Links for the day
Gemini Links 27/06/2025: Poetry and Censorship by Social Control Media Centralisation
Links for the day
Links 27/06/2025: Journalists Under Fire and Microsoft Has Serious Slop Problems
Links for the day
X is Dying, But Not XServer/X11. Twitter X.com is Dying.
People or businesses or government officials (and departments) that still rely on Social Control Media are playing Russian Roulette with their future online
Escaping Colonialism (or 'Hegemony') Requires Abandoning GAFAM, Microsoft in Particular
Europe is already in the process of abandoning Microsoft
Microsoft Will Shut Down More Studios This Week, Its Media Operatives Will Tell Lies About the Magnitude of the Shutdowns and Layoffs (They Always Do)
Many people who get counted as "workforce" are "temps" or similar
Not Much Better Than LLM Slop: Linux Foundation-Funded 'News' Site Writes Linux Foundation 'News', Composed by Linux Foundation Operative, Quoting Linux Foundation Staff
...they get paid (sponsored) to produce this spam. Then they call it "journalism".
What Linux Foundation 'Research' is: Paid Marketing
What is Linux Foundation 'Research'?
Annual Southern California Linux Expo (SCALE 22x) 'Bought' by Microsoft and Microsoft Exceeded Sponsorship Limits by Giving Double the Maximum Permitted Amount
When people get bribed they tend to forget how to utter a simple word: "No."
No, IBM Does Not Care About People With Disabilities
"Aktion T4" did not seem to bother Watson
Microsoft's Financial Problems Mean Shutdowns, Not Just Mass Layoffs
If the original rumour is true, then expect almost 30,000 Microsoft workers to be let go this year
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, June 26, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, June 26, 2025
The Netherlands: GNU/Linux Measured at All-Time High
Are any Dutch cities going to announce dumping Microsoft?
Gemini Links 27/06/2025: "Interstitial Existence" and Autocorrect
Links for the day
EPO Examiners Point Out to the Heads of Delegations in the Administrative Council of the EPO That the "AI Policy" of the Office is Illegal
"the Central Staff Committee (CSC) asks the Administrative Council to exert its supervisory role and instruct EPO management to enter into genuine dialogue with the staff representation on the AI Policy, to revise the “Leverage AI” target of 90% AI-automated classification in the SP2028 and to put in place the measures supported by staff in the resolution."
Technical People Need Technical Lawyers
Technical Litigants in Person (LIPs) have many real and concrete advantages
10,000+ Articles in About 20 Months (and How We Got Here)
More bloat does not beget efficiency and "bells and whistles" tend to have a hidden cost
French Cities Dumping Microsoft Because They Recognise Software Freedom, Open Standards, GNU/Linux Autonomy
We hope that more French cities - maybe Paris - will follow Lyon.
Links 26/06/2025: Illegal Kangaroo Court (UPC) Failing Scandinavia, K-Pop Agencies Abuse People
Links for the day
Gemini Links 26/06/2025: AuraGem Twitch Proxy is Back and UI Sluggishness
Links for the day
LWN is a Voice of GAFAM (Through Linux Foundation, Their Front Group or Occupying Force Inside Linux)
remember who the chief editor works for and who sponsors many of the articles
Links 26/06/2025: Noise Pollution Considered High in Europe, Mass Layoffs Next Week in Microsoft Confirmed, Very Large in Scale and Scope
Links for the day
The 'Case' of the Serial Strangler From Microsoft is a Lot of Copypasta (Maybe Also LLM Slop) From the Matthew Garrett 'Case'
5RB deserves to know and the matter shall be properly reported in due course (when the time is right)
EPO Squeezing the Staff - Part II - Office Breaks Rules, Ignores Courts, Defies Justice
False promises everywhere
No, I Don't Want Your Latest XYZ, ThankYouVeryMuch...
Wayland is finally ready?
China Keeps Breaking Into Microsoft Systems, So for True Sovereignty, Nations Wary of China Need to Dump Microsoft
Looking at data from Taiwan (not China) and Maharlika (not Philippines, the king is dead and Spain is out), there are encouraging signs
Linux Journal Wants Ads on Its LLM Slop or Ads as 'Articles'
it's basically another BetaNews
How to Kill a Monopoly
in 10 simple steps
IBM - Like Microsoft - is a Dying Company and Perishing Brand ("AI" is a Lie and Decoy)
"Arvind is cutting costs (layoffs, PIPs, forced RTO, etc...) like crazy. IBM offices are closing all over the place in the US."
"Code of Conduct" Invoked When Fedora and Red Hat Users (Since the 1990s) Don't Want to Use Wayland
That is IBM "DEI"
Mozambique: GNU/Linux Rose From 0.5% Last Year to 3% This Year
what (or how) statCounter is measuring
Microsoft Layoffs Next Week: About 10% to be Laid Off in Microsoft Gaming (2 Days Before Independence Day), About 20%+ of XBox Staff
Microsoft is rapidly collapsing
Next Month Marks 11 Years Since Our In-Depth EPO Coverage
The same is happening to Microsoft right now
Free Software Foundation (FSF) Campaigns Against Vista 11, Adds 4 New Associate Members Per Day
If more people understood the underlying principles, more of them would flock to Free software overnight
Canonical Seems to Have Culled Some Sources of LLM Slop From Planet Ubuntu
It's like "junk food", it's not information
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, June 25, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, June 25, 2025
On "Weak Claims"
For the record, they sent me unjustified threats, repeatedly tried injunctions (censorship)
EPO Squeezing the Staff - Part I - Burnout and Family Health
more exceptional circumstances
This Month's Mail (MX) Server Survey Shows Microsoft at 0.20% "Market Share"
We need to remind people that desktops and laptops decline (in proportion to other client devices) and at the "back end" GNU/Linux is already dominant and has long been dominant
Links 26/06/2025: Filespooler Guide and Learning to Code
Links for the day