Bonum Certa Men Certa

Let Them Eat 'Apps'

posted by Roy Schestowitz on Mar 25, 2025,
updated Mar 25, 2025

about:blank

THIS morning Ryan linked to this page (US government site) and then quoted: "The payment site is designed to work with all mobile and desktop browsers. If you have a technical issue related to browser compatibility, we recommend downloading the latest version of Google Chrome. If you still have problems, you may request technical support within your account from the help page."

I am familiar with this phenomenon and wrote about it in 2021 [1, 2], then made a formal complaint that was handled by the Council.

I told Ryan "it is a chrome webapp, proprietary on proprietary" (both Chrome and the "app", probably the operating system too). It's not very user-friendly and if you somehow manage to install this malware (with a "recent" enough so-called 'phone'; old versions won't be supported anymore), then you have no actual person to speak to; they tend to say, "you can go to our site to run our malware on your malware" (browser), but there too there's no actual person who can help. They want people to struggle with finger strokes and unfamiliar (to be learned and used only once in a lifetime) interfaces. They're basically cheapening the service... making it cheaper only to themselves (while you pay with your time, angst and so on).

I joked with Ryan that "you must be a humanoid with "apps"... otherwise, [it's] either hard or persona non grata". I told him that "for accessibility reasons they tend to have paper-based fallbacks" (they always exist but are also well hidden; they'd even lie to some people about the existence of such options, not for technical reasons but because of the above-mentioned cheapening).

"It costs more to file using paper," he says. Yes, they try to punish people one way or another, like today's U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) penalising people financially if they do not use Microsoft's proprietary formats.

I told Ryan, "it also costs more to eat well, but you don't want to live on just bread and butter..."

Feed me!! Or I will need feed your social control media notifications addiction!!

The latest article by Dr. Andy Farnell speaks about this. He said: "My family and I have been free from BigTech for many years and refuse to use Microsoft, Google or other US services for security reasons. That has sometimes made life difficult, to say the least. But we are resolute and insistent. Despite relentless, cloying propaganda claiming it's "impossible" to be free of US behemoths, we've been happily and more safely living that simple reality for a long time."

'Apps' aren't fast and they typically don't save time considering how much maintenance (set aside costs) a modern "phone" demands. It's like having a pet inside your pocket or purse. It's just an extra responsibility, no matter where one goes. A wristwatch didn't demand battery changes (or charges) every day and you didn't need to constantly upgrade it, worry about bloat, viruses etc.

Go Appless. Not Apples. Appless.

Google Charging phones

You feed him data any second it's turned on.

Other Recent Techrights' Posts

Michael “Monty” Widenius: It Started in 1983 With Richard Stallman (RMS)
The other co-founder of MySQL is a bit notorious for confronting RMS rather viciously
For the Second Time in a Few Weeks Microsoft Lunduke Makes False Accusations Against Senior Red Hat Staff to Incite a Despicable 'Troll Army'
Nothing that Microsoft Lunduke claims of says can be trusted
 
Links 03/10/2025: Lawyers Caught Using LLM Slop Explain Why They Did It, LibreSSL 4.1.1 and 4.0.1 Released
Links for the day
FSF Board Grew 50% Since Last Year, Has New President, Turns 40 in Two Days
It's a good move for the FSF and - by extension - for software freedom
Links 03/10/2025: Conflicts, Death of TypePad, and TikTok/CheeTok Gives a Boost to Far Right Groups in Europe
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, October 02, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, October 02, 2025
Slopwatch: Linux Journal, Google News, and LinuxSecurity
They carry on polluting the Web with fake articles
Gemini Links 02/10/2025: Kubernetes With FreeBSD and robots.txt
Links for the day
Links 02/10/2025: 'Open' 'AI' Resorting to Gimmicks and Fake Funding, Europe’s ‘Drone Wall’ Discussed
Links for the day
Links 02/10/2025: Brave Passes 100M Users Milestone, Kodak Selling Its Own Film Again
Links for the day
su lisa && rm -rf /home/ibm/power
Novell was ruined by another person from IBM, Ronald Hovsepian
A Record Demand at Microsoft: Demand to Cancel
What we're witnessing is a very ungraceful destruction of XBox
Microsoft is Losing Europe
Hence all the "support" and "discount" offers that are limited to Europe
The Free Software Foundation Starts Fund-raising for 40th Anniversary
New pop-up 2-3 days ahead of the 40th anniversary event
Systemd Breaks Networking in Debian and Microsoft Staff Rushes to Make Face-Saving Excuses in LWN
Microsoft's bluca is already there in the comments, his Microsoft money pays for LWN to let him leave comments early
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, October 01, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, October 01, 2025
What the End of XBox Will Look Like: a Fiery Crash
XBox is the next Skype. It won't last much longer. Expect many more layoffs.
Richard Stallman is Going to Finland to Give a Talk Next Thursday
A day later he speaks in Sweden
Gemini Links 02/10/2025: SMTP Pipelining and End of ROOPHLOCH 2025
Links for the day
Slopwatch: Plagiarism, Fake Articles, and FUD About Linux
not a day goes by without Google News feeding FUD from slopfarms
Gemini Links 01/10/2025: Chat Control and End of Life
Links for the day
Links 01/10/2025: Long Covid Risk Reiterated, "Bitcoin Queen" Caught
Links for the day
Links 01/10/2025: EA $55 Billion Deal is Debt and Slop "Raises Vishing Risks"
Links for the day
Bluewashing at Red Hat Means Redundancies
The man who sold Red Hat to IBM meanwhile became a Microsoft Mono booster
After Killing OpenSource.com, IBM ('Red Hat') and OSI Told Us OpenSource.net Would Replace It (But That Didn't Happen)
Now it's time to move on, perhaps tarnishing the "Open Source" label some more (for whatever sponsor wants this)
Linux is Not a Community Project, It's a Wall Street Product
The core goal should be freedom
Bad Actors Abusing the Free Software Community, Vandalising It Using Rogue Politics and Old Tactics
Oil giants have long attempted to do this; now, the digital equivalent of Big Oil does this in technology
Social Control Media Isn't the Future, The Federation or Fediverse Isn't Growing, People's Accounts Vanish for Good
users' accounts will get deleted, not just become inactive
IBM is Failing, This Helps Show Wall Street is Entirely Detached From Actual Commercial Performance
IBM is unable to grow, it's just constantly shrinking
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, September 30, 2025
IRC logs for Tuesday, September 30, 2025
Clerical Aspects of Publishing and Development
In Free software, the management aspects are considerably reduced
Slopwatch: Fake Articles and Google News Promoting "Linux" Spam or Bot-Generated Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt (FUD)
These slopfarms help misplace blame
Third Wave of Microsoft Layoffs in September, This Time Many in Liverpool Affected
Be ready for more waves of layoffs ahead of the so-called "results" in late October