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

Comparing U.E.F.I. to B.I.O.S. (Bloat and Insecurity to K.I.S.S.)
By Sami Tikkanen
New 'Slides' From Stallman Support (stallmansupport.org) Site
"In celebration of RMS's birthday, we've been playing a bit. We extracted some quotes from the various articles, comments, letters, writings, etc. and put them in the form of a slideshow in the home page."
Thailand: GNU/Linux Up to 6% of Desktops/Laptops, According to statCounter
Desktop Operating System Market Share Thailand
António Campinos is Still 'The Fucking President' (in His Own Words) After a Fake 'Election' in 2022 (He Bribed All the Voters to Keep His Seat)
António Campinos and the Administrative Council, whose delegates he clearly bribed with EPO budget in exchange for votes
Adrian von Bidder, homeworking & Debian unexplained deaths
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
 
GNOME GUADEC 2022 & Debian Albanian women trafficked to Mexico?
Reprinted with permission from the Free Software Fellowship
Sainsbury's: It Takes Us Up to Two Days to Respond to Customers Upon Escalation (and Sometimes Even More Than Two Days)
It not only does groceries but also many other things, even banking
People Don't Just Kill Themselves (Same for Other Animals)
And recent reports about Boeing whistleblower John Barnett
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, March 18, 2024
IRC logs for Monday, March 18, 2024
Suicide Cluster Cover-up tactics & Debian exposed
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Gemini Links 19/03/2024: A Society That Lost Focus and Abandoning Social Control Media
Links for the day
Matthias Kirschner, FSFE: Plagiarism & Child labour in YH4F
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Linux Foundation Boasting About Being Connected to Bill Gates
Examples of boasting about the association
Alexandre Oliva's Article on Monstering Cults
"I'm told an earlier draft version of this post got published elsewhere. Please consider this IMHO improved version instead."
[Meme] 'Russian' Elections in Munich (Bavaria, Germany)
fake elections
Sainsbury's to Techrights: Yes, Our Web Site Broke Down, But We Cannot Say Which Part or Why
Windows TCO?
Plagiarism: Axel Beckert (ETH Zurich) & Debian Developer list hacking
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Links 18/03/2024: Putin Cements Power
Links for the day
Flashback 2003: Debian has always had a toxic culture
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Sainsbury’s Epic Downtime Seems to be Microsoft's Fault and Might Even Constitute a Data Breach (Legal Liability)
one of Britain's largest groceries (and beyond) chains
[Meme] You Know You're Winning the Argument When...
EPO management starts cursing at everybody (which is what's happening)
Catspaw With Attitude
The posts "they" complain about merely point out the facts about this harassment and doxing
'Clown Computing' Businesses Are Waning and the Same Will Happen to 'G.A.I.' Businesses (the 'Hey Hi' Fame)
decrease in "HEY HI" (AI) hype
Free Software Needs Watchdogs, Too
Gentle lapdogs prevent self-regulation and transparency
Matthias Kirschner, FSFE analogous to identity fraud
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Gemini Links 18/03/2024: LLM Inference and Can We Survive Technology?
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, March 17, 2024
IRC logs for Sunday, March 17, 2024
Links 17/03/2024: Microsoft Windows Shoves Ads Into Third-Party Software, More Countries Explore TikTok Ban
Links for the day
Molly Russell suicide & Debian Frans Pop, Lucy Wayland, social media deaths
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Our Plans for Spring
Later this year we turn 18 and a few months from now our IRC community turns 16
Open Invention Network (OIN) Fails to Explain If Linux is Safe From Microsoft's Software Patent Royalties (Charges)
Keith Bergelt has not replied to queries on this very important matter
RedHat.com, Brought to You by Microsoft Staff
This is totally normal, right?
USPTO Corruption: People Who Don't Use Microsoft Will Be Penalised ~$400 for Each Patent Filing
Not joking!
The Hobbyists of Mozilla, Where the CEO is a Bigger Liability Than All Liabilities Combined
the hobbyist in chief earns much more than colleagues, to say the least; the number quadrupled in a matter of years
Jim Zemlin Says Linux Foundation Should Combat Fraud Together With the Gates Foundation. Maybe They Should Start With Jim's Wife.
There's a class action lawsuit for securities fraud
Not About Linux at All!
nobody bothers with the site anymore; it's marketing, and now even Linux
Links 17/03/2024: Abuses Against Human Rights, Tesla Settlement (and Crash)
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, March 16, 2024
IRC logs for Saturday, March 16, 2024
Under Taliban, GNU/Linux Share Nearly Doubled in Afghanistan, Windows Sank From About 90% to 68.5%
Suffice to say, we're not meaning to imply Taliban is "good"
Debian aggression: woman asked about her profession
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Gemini Links 17/03/2024: Winter Can't Hurt Us Anymore and Playstation Plus
Links for the day